In A New World
by SCLizzy
Summary: After Irina's disappearance, she was seen once more, this time stealing Sydney away from Jack. Now twenty years later, Sydney works for her mother, fighting against the people she was meant to work with. SV
1. Chapter One

I don't own Alias or any of it's characters.

A/N: Hey everyone, this story has been in my head for a long time, please let me know what you think. The more reviews I get the faster I'll update. Thanks for reading and enjoy.

Chapter One

Jack Bristow stood in silence looking out at the water that had helped his wife escape, behind him his friend and colleague William Vaughn walked toward him. Jack simply stood still as his friend told him the most recent news.

"The divers haven't found any bodies. It's quite possible that the currents took her body, we might never find her remains." he said. Jack stood silent. "Jack go home. You need to be with your daughter right now, this isn't helping you."

"You'll never find her remains because she's not dead." he finally said, his voice serious.

"Jack you don't know that." William answered.

"Yes I do. Irina isn't stupid, if she wanted to escape she would do so without any trouble and that's exactly what she's done. The CIA will never find her, she's far too smart for them." he said without taking his eyes off the water.

"Go home Jack." William said.

"William, I need you to watch over Sydney for some time." he said finally turning to look his friend in the eye.

"Why? What are you going to do?" William asked.

"It's in your best interest that you don't ask such questions." he said as he walked to his car and drove away. William simply stood there fearing that his friend was going to ruin everything he had worked for all these years.

**One Month Later**

"Daddy no!" Sydney yelled out as her nanny held her back.

"Sydney, it will only be for a little while, I promise I'll be back darling."

"NO! Don't leave me! Please daddy, don't leave me." she cried out. She had no idea, but her cries were like daggers to her father's heart.

"I love you darling. I'll be back as soon as I can." Jack said as he turned around and walked away. As he walked to his car he could still here Sydney's cries. He wanted to stay, he wanted to make sure that she was safe and happy but he couldn't do that with Irina Derevko threatening his child's safety. The moment she left, he knew that it wouldn't be the last of her. He still loved her, he couldn't deny that to himself but he loved his daughter even more and his greatest fear was that Irina would one day take her away from him. It was the reason why he had tested project Christmas on Sydney. He wanted to make sure that she could defend herself, that she would never be the victim of anyone, especially not of Irina.

As he drove away he could only hope that what he was doing was the right thing. It broke his heart to leave her, but it was all he could do to keep her safe.

**Next Morning**

She woke up feeling angry. She was angry that her father had left her when she needed him the most. She was angry that she didn't have her mother anymore and she was angry that she was so alone. Her train of thoughts was broken by the scent of chocolate chips and pancakes. Chocolate chip pancakes were her favorite. Every Sunday morning her dad would make them for her and the sweet scent would wake her every morning. Her heart started raising with the thought that her father had returned for her.

"Daddy! Daddy!" she yelled happily as she ran down the stairs. She ran to the kitchen only to find that instead of her father a strange man and a young boy were preparing the chocolate chip pancakes. She stood there frozen staring at the two strangers in her home.

"Good morning Sydney. My name is William Vaughn and this is my son Michael." he said. She looked at the kind looking man and his son, the first thing she had noticed were his beautiful green eyes. They both stood there smiling.

"Good morning." she simply replied.

"I thought you might be feeling a bit lonely so I decided to bring you some company. Would you like some breakfast?" Will asked.

"I'm not hungry." she said as she ran back to her room in tears.

"Dad is she okay?" Michael asked.

"Michael, her mother just died and her father has left town. She's just feeling alone. Why don't you go talk to her, maybe you two should play a game." he told his son.

"I don't know." he answered.

"It's just a suggestion Michael." he said as he continued to make more pancakes.

Michael thought about what it would be like to lose his parents, he realized how sad the young girl must feel. He began to walk up the stairs being led by the young girl's cries.

Her door was slightly opened and he could see her lying on her bed face down crying as quietly as she could.

"Hi." he said as he entered the room. Sydney looked up, her eyes full of tears, and then simply put her face down again and continued to cry.

"My name is Michael, but everyone calls me Mike. Your name is Sydney right?" he asked. Sydney simply ignored him. "Do you like cartoons? I like cartoons. I like to play basketball too, but hockey is my favorite thing to play. Do you play hockey? Probably not, maybe one day I can show you how. Do you like to read? Do you even know how to read? Probably not. Are you in school? I'm in the third grade, I can read." he continued.

"I know how to read. My mom taught me." she finally answered. "And you talk a lot."

"You don't talk enough." he replied. "Why don't you come eat breakfast with us?"

"I told you I'm not hungry." she said.

"I can hear your stomach all the way over here." he said with a laugh. Sydney simply smiled. "Come on, let's go. Thing aren't going to get better just because you don't eat pancakes."

"I am a little hungry." she said. She finally stood up and dried her eyes and walked with Mike to the kitchen.

"It's Syd, by the way. Only my dad calls me Sydney." she said.

"Sydney, you're back. I'm glad to see you're feeling better." Will said when he saw his son and the young girl walk back into the kitchen.

"Dad, it's Syd, only her dad calls her Sydney." Michael said, Sydney simply smiled.

"My mistake, how many pancakes would you like Syd?" Will asked.

"Four, thank you." she said as she sat down.

"Me too." Michael said as he sat down next to her. Will served the kids a plate of pancakes and then sat down to join them.

"Sydney, how would you like to spend some time in my home. I don't feel right leaving you here with only your nanny. At least there you can play with Michael, and my wife could make sure that you get everything you need." Will asked.

"What if my dad comes back?" she asked.

"Of course your dad is coming back but you could be our guest in the meantime. My wife would really love it if you came and I know Michael would have a great time showing you how to play hockey. Just think about it, you'll have a great time." he said.

"I'll think about it." she said.

After breakfast Will took the kids to the zoo and then brought them back to her house. They had rented a few videos to watch for the rest of the night.

"Have you thought about what I asked you Syd?" Will asked.

"Yes, I have." she answered.

"You should come Syd, we'll have a lot of fun." Michael told her.

"Does my dad know?" she asked.

"Yes I mentioned it to him last night. He thought it was a great idea." Will answered.

"Well, if my dad is okay with it, then...um... I guess... it would be okay." she told him.

"You're going to have a great time Syd, don't worry about it. Why don't you go pack some things." he told her. "Michael you should go help her."

Both kids went to her room where they began to pack her things. Sydney packed her own clothes and asked Michael to get her toys for her.

"Which one?" he asked.

"The teddy bear." she told him as she continued to gather her clothes.

"There's like a ton of them." he told her.

"It's the little brown one." she told him.

"This one?" he asked holding up a little brown teddy bear.

"Yeah that one, my mom gave it to me for my birthday last year." she said.

"Is that everything?" he asked.

"Just two more things." she said. She walked to her night-stand and took out two pictures.

"What's that?" he asked her.

"This is me and mom and this is me and dad." she told him as she showed him the pictures. "Now we can go."

**A Week Later**

"How is she?" Jack asked.

"She's doing great Jack. She's having a great time here, but she misses you, she needs you. When are you coming back?" William asked.

"I don't know yet. I know you don't understand but I'm doing this for Sydney. Irina Derevko is a danger to Sydney. Perhaps not today but someday she'll come back into life and I won't allow that to happen." Jack said.

"Jack, I understand that you feel you need to protect Syd from Irina, but face it, you also want revenge. Irina won't hurt her own daughter, she loves her too much." William replied.

"Not enough to leave the KGB. Irina's loyalty is with the KGB, not with Sydney, I have to protect her even from her mother."

"What you have to do is be with her, she needs her father more than ever and you just leave. She's coming, we'll continue this later." William said and Syd came running down, followed by Michael. "Syd, it's your dad." Syd stopped dead in her tracks. She looked at Michael who gave her a reassuring look and she walked toward William and took the phone.

"Hello." she said.

"Hi sweetheart, how are you?" he asked.

"I'm okay. Daddy, when are you coming home?" she asked, tears streaming down her eyes.

"I don't know honey, but it won't be much longer. Daddy needs to take care of something but I promise I'll be back soon." he told her. "Have you been having a good time at Will's place?"

"Yes." she responded trying not to cry.

"I hear you and Michael are good friends." Jack said trying to get Sydney talking about something else.

"Yes, he's really nice to me. Daddy I miss you, please come back!" she cried out.

"Sweetheart I know you miss me but you have to be strong. I promise you that I'll come back. Sweetie I need to go now, but I'll call you as soon as I can. I love you." he said.

"I love you too daddy, please don't leave! Daddy! Daddy come back!" she kept crying. She turned to William and threw the phone on the ground. "He's gone!" she yelled and ran up to her room.

"Why did he leave her?" Michael who had just witnessed everything finally asked.

"He needed some time away, his wife's death was really hard on him. Why don't you go check on Syd." William said as he picked up the phone. Michael took his father's advice and went up to check on his new friend Syd.

"Syd?" he called out as he stood outside of her door. "Can I come in?" There was no answer, only soft cries that were barely audible from outside the room. He opened the door and saw Syd sitting on the floor crying over a picture she held in her hand. He couldn't see whose picture it was but he assumed that it was of her mother.

"I know you miss her Syd, and I know that you're sad because your dad isn't here but you have me and my dad and my mom. We'll always take care of you." he said as he sat next to her. It was then that he realized that the picture in her hand was not of her mother, it was of her father.

"I'm just so scared." she said.

"What are you scared of?" he asked.

"I'm scared that I'll lose him like I lost my mom." she told him.

"You won't lose him. He'll be back before you know it."

"I hope so." she said.

"Come on, let's go play." They both stood up and ran down to the living room. With that Syd left her fears behind and enjoyed the time spent with her new friend.

**In a cell in Russia**

Irina sat in her cell, thinking about the daughter and husband she had left behind. Her thoughts were interrupted when she heard someone approaching. A man dressed in black suit walked toward her. His face looked a bit different, older, but she would have recognized him anywhere. He was her superior, the man who had given her orders to marry a CIA agent and steal information for the KGB.

"Irina, it's great to have you back."

"Cuvee, it's great seeing you too, but what's with the cell?" she asked.

"Ah, it's only a precaution. As soon as we get your psych tests back, you'll be released.." he said.

"And when exactly will that be, seeing as no one has conducted any tests." she said.

"Irina, don't be impatient. Besides, this is the test." he told her. Irina simply smiled and closed her eyes. Irina heard the sounds of a second man approaching. She opened her eyes and saw a guard hand Cuvee a phone. "One second darling, I have to take this." he said as he walked away. She couldn't hear what was being said which put her in distress. She watched him and finally after a few minutes he turned around and walked back toward her.

"Good news Irina. They've just told me that you've passed the test." Cuvee said to her.

"Does that mean that I'm free to go?" she asked.

"Free as a bird my darling. We'll be contacting you in a few days, we might need you soon, but for now rest my darling." Cuvee said. He signaled for the guard to open the door and left.

Irina left the KGB holding cell surprisingly sad. She missed her daughter more than she could bare and her husband too. She knew however that Jack would never forgive her for her betrayal but her darling Syd would. It was then that Irina decided what she would do. She was going to get her daughter back, no matter what.


	2. Chapter Two

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

A/N: Here's the second chapter, I hope you like it. Please Review, it inspires me to write even more.

Chapter Two:

"My contacts tell me that she was spotted leaving a KGB facility last night. She's staying at a hotel, the hotel Metropol, under the name Laura Greene." Jack's contact told him.

"Are you sure?" Jack asked.

"Jack, I'm sure." he replied. "She's staying in room 417." The man waited for Jack to reply but Jack simply stayed silent. "Jack what is it?" the man finally asked.

"That's my daughter's birthday." he finally said.

"I'm sure it's just a coincidence."

"Nothing with Irina is just a coincidence." Jack said. He hung up the phone and walked into the safehouse he had in Russia. When he first found out that Laura was really Irina Derevko he had taken precautions in case of her betrayal. He had hoped that she wouldn't but sadly she had chosen the KGB over her family.

**Six Years Earlier**

"_How was your day sweetie?" Laura asked as soon as she heard the door close. It amazed him how with a few simple words she could brighten up his whole day. _

"_It was fine. How was you day?" he asked her. She stayed silent for a moment, long enough to compose her thoughts. He wondered why the pause, did she suspect that he was lying to her?_

"_Jack, I think we need to talk." she said. Although they had been married for some time, they hardly ever fought and when they did it was about his traveling so much._

"_Darling, I told you traveling is part of my job description." he began._

"_No, it's not that. I think you should sit down." she said as she walked into the kitchen and took a seat. He walked in right after her, seating himself right in front of her, the only thing that separated them was a small square table._

"_Jack, I love you with all my heart, you know that right?" she said after a moment of silence. Although he'd been a CIA agent for years, trained to handle any situation, he wasn't sure that he knew how to handle this one._

"_Yes, and I love you too." he answered her._

"_We've both done things that we aren't proud of. We've both lied to each other for what we thought was the better good. You lied to me about what you do, and I lied to you." she began._

"_What is this about Laura?" Jack interrupted._

"_Jack, please, let me finish. I need you to listen to me, without interruptions. When I'm done, you can do whatever you want. You can yell at me, you can be mad at me, you can turn me in, kill me if you'd like. But I need you to listen to me." she said. He nodded in agreement, his heart filled with fear, pounding uncontrollably._

"_I know that you're CIA. I know that you've kept this from me because of the high security missions that you go on. I've known all along, even before we met. The reason I know this is because my mission was to seduce you in order to leak information to the KGB." she paused and looked at her husband. He seemed so... cold. She had done this to him, and the realization of how much pain the man she loved was going through because of her caused her to lose her composure and begin to cry. "I'm so sorry Jack. I never meant to hurt you. I thought I was doing the right thing, I thought I was helping my country. I wasn't supposed to fall in love with you, but I did, that's why I'm telling you this." she said. She couldn't keep talking, it hurt to much to say anymore, all she could do now was cry. Jack stood up and left. Irina cried even more now. She feared that she had lost him now, for good. A few moments later he returned. She looked up at him, tears streaming down her eyes. He sat down next to her and then he pulled out his gun and put it on her forehead._

"_You used me." he began. "I loved you and you used me. You used who I am, what I do, and you think that you can just sit here and cry and it'll make it all go away."_

"_Jack, I needed to tell you."she said._

"_What did you think was going to happen once you revealed yourself to me? Did you think I was just going to say it was okay? Huh? Tell me what did you think was going to happen!" he yelled._

"_I thought you would go upstairs and take out your gun, the one you hide inside your suitcase, then you would come down here and you would shoot me. That's what I thought would happen." she said._

"_Don't. Play. Games. With me." he said as he pushed the gun further against her head. "If you thought that I was going to kill you, you wouldn't have said anything."_

"_I would have, if I felt that that was the least I deserved." she said._

"_Why now? We've been married for years, why today, why now?" he asked her, his voice breaking._

"_Because I know that you're next mission involves the KGB. I know that you're going to infiltrate one of their facilities in order to steal their new design of a weapon. Because I can't warn you without telling you who I really am. Because I know that if you go in there, you won't come out and I can't let you do that, at least not without knowing the truth. When you go in there, it's likely that you'll find what you're looking for and that everything that I've just told you will be confirmed once you gain access to the KGB computers, then when you steal the information you'll run out the same way you came in, and what you'll find is that you're trapped. They'll kill you. I don't want you to die and I didn't want you to find out about me like that." she said._

"_You're lying! If you think that you can tell me some sob story so that I won't do my job, you're wrong!" he yelled at her._

"_When you access the information, the computer will automatically send a signal back to one of the KGB officers telling them that someone is accessing information. It doesn't matter if you have a code or not, the system is designed so that whenever it is accessed it'll tell someone. Once they figure out that you've accessed information the whole place will go into a lockdown, they'll have the place surrounded, there's only one way of getting out after that, and the CIA doesn't know about it, only I can tell you." she said._

"_Don't try to bargain. Nothing you can say will make me let you live." he said._

"_I'm not bargaining, I don't care if you kill me, I just want to know that you'll be safe. Once you get that information, don't leave that room. There is a storage closet there, it seems like any storage closet but there is a keypad in the top corner of the back wall, it's hidden behind several things, but it's there. The password is one of three, either 2587, 7412, or 2369. They rotate the passwords every few months." she told him._

"_Why would they go through all the trouble of locking down the place and keep that one exit available and unsecured?" he asked._

"_Because, only three people know it, it's a precaution in case the facility is compromised, in case they needed to escape or enter undetected." she explained._

"_Why do you know about it?" he asked._

"_I just do." she said to him. Jack wanted to believe her, he wanted to believe that she wanted to help him, that she really did love him. He took one last look at his wife and then put the gun down._

"_I'm leaving now, when I come back you better not be here." he said as he stood up and walked out of the kitchen. _

"_I love you." she said as he opened the door. He paused for a moment, and then left without saying a word."_

**In Irina's Hotel Room**

Irina laid down, the bed felt like heaven after sleeping in a cell for over a month. It seemed to her that the bed was too large, she missed her old bedroom, she missed her husband and she missed her daughter. She knew that she would never regain his trust, she had betrayed him once and the fact that he had forgiven her was a miracle, but she knew it wasn't in him to give her another chance.

_He had been gone for three days. Usually his missions never lasted more than two days. She was worried about him. Had he done what she told him? She hoped so, otherwise he might never be coming back. ' I'm leaving now, when I come back you better not be here." Those were his last words to her. Even so, she hadn't listened. She was still in their home, the home that they had so carefully picked out, a three bedroom home, even though it was only the two of them. Jack had always wanted a house full of kids, that's what he had said when she pointed out that it was two of them and three bedrooms. If only he knew that they had one on the way. She had only found out about two weeks ago. When the doctor first told her, she was so happy she couldn't wait to tell Jack. But then it hit her, this wasn't really her life. This was the life of Laura Bristow, wife and mother to be, Irina was an agent, a woman living a lie. How fair would it be to bring a child into a world where her mother was a traitor and her father a man who risked his life for a living. The first week she kept weighing the pros and cons of having an abortion. She didn't want to have an abortion but she couldn't help but wonder what would happen the day that she had to leave, Jack would be left with a child that would only remind him of his wife's betrayal, could she do that to him, to her child? What if she was a bad mother, what if Jack became a bad father after learning the truth? Finally after a week of thinking about it she decided that she was going to keep this child. She decided that she was going to tell Jack the truth about her identity and then if he still wanted her in his life she would tell him the news. She didn't want to use their baby as a way of ensuring her safety or his forgiveness. _

_She sat on the sofa and started to read, a few moments later the door opened and Jack walked in. Irina was so happy to see him, he was safe, that was all that mattered now. As Jack closed the door he spotted her with a book by her side. He stood there for a moment just starring at her, with her starring back._

"_I told you I didn't want you here when I returned." Jack finally said._

"_I know." she answered._

"_Then why are you still here?" he asked. _

"_You used my intel." she said to him._

"_Leave." he said in a stone cold voice._

"_I can't." she said._

"_Leave." he repeated._

"_I love you." she said. She stood up and walked up to him. "I love you." she repeated._

"_Leave." he said avoiding her face. She put her hands on his face and made him look at her._

"_I love you." she said with tears running down her face. She could tell that he was hurting, but she had to get through to him. She began to close the space between their lips, he simply stood there. She lightly kissed him. "You don't want me to leave." she whispered to him as she kissed him again. This time he responded, kissing her more intensely than ever before. He wrapped his arms around her and held her tightly. "I love you too." he said between breaths. She backed away from him now, and looked at him. He was back, her beloved Jack was back._

"_Does this mean you forgive me?" she asked, wiping away her tears. He put his hand on her face and kissed her gently._

"_Yes, but if you ever betray me again, I will kill you Irina." he said. It was the first time that she had heard him say her real name, she wasn't sure what to feel. It was exciting and scary at the same time. He knew her now, he knew everything about her now._

"_You read my file." she said. He nodded. "There's something else I have to tell you." _

"_What?" he said, she could tell that he was worried. _

"_We're having a baby." she said smiling at him. His eyes filled with tears and he smiled at her._

"_We're having a baby." he repeated. "We're having a baby!" he yelled out now. They both laughed and held each other. _

"_I love you." he said to her as he moved in to kiss her. _

It had been one of the happiest days of her life. Jack had forgiven her even though she had lied to him for so long. Together they had come up with a plan to keep her safe, to keep their unborn baby safe. Every few months he would provide her with false intel to give to the KGB, he had set up a safehouse in Russia in case she was ever extracted by the KGB and they had come up with ways of telling each other if anything went wrong. He had kept her true identity to himself, the CIA had no idea who she really was, but she had ruined it all. She had left without telling him, she had returned to the KGB, and for that he would never forgive her.

As she closed her eyes, to fall asleep, she was startled by the sound of her door breaking. She sat up and saw Jack walk in, a gun in his hand. He shot at her, but he missed. She rolled down to the floor and picked up the gun that was under her pillow. She shot back at him, she wasn't aiming to kill him, simply to get him to drop his weapon.

"Jack please!" she yelled out. He shot even more, when he ran out of ammo, she took the opportunity and shot him. This time she didn't miss. Jack dropped his weapon and fell to the floor. Irina ran to him, weapon at hand.

"Are you alright?" she asked, pointing her gun at him. She examined him and realized that she had shot his right arm. "Where's Sydney?" she asked. He stayed quiet.

"Don't worry Jack, you're going to be okay." she said as she ran out of the room. She ran out of the hotel and immediately called an ambulance, telling them where to find Jack. She hung up and called one of her old contacts.

"I need to get on a plane to the states." she said as soon as her contact answered.

"Irina, how are you?" he asked.

"No time for that, I need to leave now." she said.

"Alright then, meet me in the usual place, twenty minutes." he said. She hung up and took a taxi. Jack being here meant that Sydney was alone, it was the perfect time to get her daughter back, an that was exactly what she planed to do.


	3. Chapter Three

Disclaimer: Sadly I don't own any of the characters.

A/N: Here's the third chapter, once again thanks for reading and if you have the time please review.

"Syd, wake up." a soft voice said. She slightly opened her eyes only to find that it was still dark outside, the only light now was that of her lamp. She moved a bit and then opened her eyes and saw Will.

"What is it?" she asked.

"You need to come with me." he said.

"Why, what's the matter?" she asked.

"You're dad wants to see you. We're going to go visit him." Will told her.

"Am I going to go home?" she asked.

"Not just yet, but soon." he told her.

"Is my daddy going to come here?" she asked.

"No, you and your daddy will stay somewhere else, somewhere safe." he told her. "Now come on, we have to go."

"Can I say goodbye to Mike." she asked.

"Of course. I'll go get him, why don't you get your things ready." he answered. Sydney got up and began to put her things into her small purple bag. She put on her jacket and then walked over to the night-stand where she kept the pictures of her parents. She took them from the drawer and placed them in her pocket. Just then the door opened and a half awake Mike walked in with his father.

"Mike, I'm going to go see my dad." she said.

"That's great Syd, I'm going to miss you." he answered.

"Maybe your dad can bring you over to the house so we can play." she said. Syd looked up at William with a pleading look.

"Of course." William answered for Mike. "Anytime you and Michael want to see each other I'll take him. Syd, we have to go."

"Okay. Bye Mike." she said as she walked up to him and hugged him.

"Bye Syd, I'll miss you." Mike answered. By the time they let go Syd had begun to silently cry. For the past week she had grown accustomed to being a part of their family, now she was forced to say goodbye them too, just like her mother. William took Sydney's bag and walked out of the room with Sydney by his side. They quietly walked down the stairs and out into the garage where they got into William's car.

"Where is my daddy staying at?" she asked as she fastened her seatbelt. Just then the phone rang.

"Just a second Syd. Hello?" he said as he began to drive away from the house. Sydney looked out the window and watched the rain fall. It hardly rained in LA, but tonight it was pouring.

"William, it's Jack. Is Sydney with you?" Jack asked, his voice agitated.

"She's with me, what's the matter?"

"I just found out that Irina arrived in the states about an hour ago." Jack stated.

"When will you be here?" Will asked as he continued to drive.

"The plane lands in twenty minutes. Where are you?" Jack asked.

"I'm driving toward the safehouse like you told me."

"I don't know how much she knows, but you might be in danger." Jack hesitantly said.

"Jack, I'll be fine. Don't worry I'll keep your daughter safe." William said. At the sound of her father's name Sydney's face lightened up.

"Is that my daddy?" she asked with a smile on her face. Will nodded and returned her smile. "Can I talk to him?"

"Sydney wants to talk to you." William said.

"Alright."

"I'll see you soon." Will said.

"Will."

"Yes."

"Thank you for everything." Jack said.

"It's not a problem Jack. Here you go Syd." William said as he handed her the phone.

"Daddy!"

"Hello sweetheart. How are you?" he asked.

"I'm fine daddy. I can't wait to see you." she said with a smile on her face.

"I can't wait to see you either sweetie."

"Daddy where are you?"

"I'm on an airplane right now, I'm on my way to see you."

"Are you going to have to go away again?"

"No sweetheart, not for some time."

"I missed you daddy."

"I missed you more Sydney. Sweetheart, I have to go but I'll see you soon. I love you."

"Bye daddy, I love you too." she said. She gave William the phone back and continued to stare out the window.

"Why don't you take a nap Syd, we still have a while before we get there." William suggested.

"Okay." Sydney replied as she closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep.

**Meanwhile in the Vaughn Residence**

Irina walked out of her car with her gun at hand. The rain soaked her but she didn't care, her daughter was so close now. She walked up to the Vaughn residence, her contact had told her that this was the place where her daughter was. She picked the lock and entered the house. It was quiet and dark. She proceeded to walk up the stairs and entered into the first room she saw.

She had entered into the master bedroom. She looked at the bed, only one person laid there, a woman with light brown hair soundly sleeping. Irina walked closer to the bed, she sat down next to the woman took her gun out. She gently placed her gun on the woman's forehead.

"Where is my daughter?" Irina sternly asked. Just then the woman woke up. She was startled to see the strange woman holding a gun to her head. She looked at Irina in disbelief.

"What do you want here?" she asked.

"I want Sydney. Where is she?" Irina asked once more.

"She's gone. My husband took her away." she answered in tears. "I don't know where they went." she cried.

"Mommy?" Michael asked as he entered the room.

"Michael leave!" she cried.

"Mommy, what's happening?" he asked.

"Please! Please don't hurt my son!" she cried in terror.

"Don't worry, he'll be safe with me." Irina answered.

"NO!" she cried once more. This time Irina took the butt of her gun and hit her with it. She was knocked out immediately.

"Mommy!" Michael cried.

"She's fine Michael, she's just sleeping. Tell me, do you know where your father is?" she asked.

"He just left with Syd." he told her.

"How long ago?" she asked.

"I don't know, ten minutes." he said.

"You and I are going to take a little trip okay."

**In William Vaughn's Car**

William looked at Sydney once more, she was sound asleep now. Just then his phone rang once more. He answered thinking it would be Jack but was surprised to find that a woman was on the other line.

"Hello Mr. Vaughn." the woman said.

"Who is this?" he asked.

"My name is Irina Derevko, we've met before, but you knew me then as Laura." she calmly said.

"What do you want?"

"I wanted to tell you that you have a beautiful son. He's very brave too." she said.

"If you hurt my son I will kill you!"

"There's no need Mr. Vaughn. Look at your rearview mirror." she said. William looked and realized that a car was right behind him. " I want you to stop driving."

"Alright." he said as he slowly put the car to a stop.

"I'm glad you've decided to cooperate. Now I want you to get out of the car and drop all of your weapons."

William stepped out of the car and watched as Irina stepped outside of her car.

"Throw your weapons towards me and be careful, I wouldn't want a bullet to accidently hit your son's head!" she yelled out. William carefully took his gun and threw it toward Irina. Irina picked it up and pointed it toward William.

"Now what!" William yelled out. Sydney woke up and saw Will outside holding his arms up.

"Will what's going on?" she asked. Will turned to her and smiled.

"It's alright Syd, just sit tight." he said.

"I want you to walk toward me, hands in the air!" she yelled out. William began to slowly walk toward her and she did the same. Her gun still pointed at him. Sydney turned around and through the windows could see a woman dressed in black approaching William as he walked toward her.

As they met in the middle of the empty street, William took a risk and managed to knock Irina's gun out of her hand. As he did so she grabbed his arm and threw him to the floor. He hit the ground hard but he wasn't willing to let her take Sydney away. He grabbed her ankle and caused her to fall to the pavement on her back. They struggled for some time, punching each other, each trying to hold the other down long enough to get the gun.

"Daddy!" Michael yelled out from the car.

"Michael, stay in the car!" William managed to yell between punches.

Once Sydney heard Michael she got out of the car and ran toward the second car. Just as she was doing so, she caught a glance of the woman who was fighting William. To her utter surprise she saw her mother.

"Mommy!" she yelled out in tears. "Stop it!"

Irina turned to look at her tiny daughter standing in the rain watching as she fought the man who had taken care of her. Her heart broke at the thought of the pain that she was causing her daughter. She turned to Will and kicked him in the stomach, as he fell to the floor she threw herself to the direction of the gun and managed to take it. Once the gun was in her possession she stood up and walked to William.

"Mommy, please!" Sydney yelled. Irina looked at her daughter and then kneeled down next to Will and used the butt of the gun to hit him over the head, causing him to go unconscious. She stood up and walked toward Sydney, just as Michael got out of the car and ran to his father. Michael knelt down and held his father, crying.

"Daddy get up!" he cried as he hugged his father.

"You killed him!" Sydney cried out in anger.

"He's not dead, he's just sleeping." she said.

"Liar!"she cried as she began to back away. "You killed him!"

"No darling, I had to get you back, he's not dead, he's just hurt."she said as she walked closer to Sydney.

"They said you were dead." she said in between cries.

"They were mistaken. I was just lost, but I found you. You have to come with me sweetie. Please." she said. Sydney continued to cry, standing still as her mother approached her. Irina walked up to Sydney and slowly put her arms around her.

"I'm sorry you had to see this." she said as she kissed her. "Come on baby, let's go."

Irina picked her up and walked to her car.

"Sydney don't go!" Michael yelled as he realized that the woman was taking Sydney away.

Irina held on to Sydney tighter and whispered in her ear. "He's going to be okay." As they got to her car Irina gently put Sydney in the front seat and fastened her seatbelt as Sydney continued to cry. Irina closed the door and walked toward Michael and William.

"You're dad is going to be fine. Use this and dial 911 and tell them you're on Kinsey Street." she said as she handed Michael the phone. She then walked toward her car and drove away.

Finally she had what she wanted.


	4. Chapter Four

**CIA office in LA Twenty Years Later **

Jack Bristow entered the CIA room where several agents sat waiting for his briefing. Jack took a seat next to Director Devlon and waited to be introduced.

"Good morning." Devlon began, "As most of you know we have an agent undercover in one of the Alliance cells. Agent Jack Bristow has been a double agent, working inside SD-6 for years now. He's here today to brief us on a new situation. Jack."

Jack stood up and faced the several agents, as they passed along a folder he had prepared.

"Sloane was recently informed about the existence of a secret organization in search of Rambaldi pieces. They have no name and we have very little information about them. What we do know is that they are extremely powerful and influential."

"Why haven't we heard of them before?" Agent Michael Vaughn asked.

"Because, Agent Vaughn, they haven't brought much attention to themselves. They are very discreet in their dealing, they don't go steal things with guns, they take things by blackmailing influential people, world leaders, politicians, anyone who can get them what they want. So far all we have managed to figure out is their leader, who calls himself The Man, never makes an appearance. His identity is a mystery to everyone, including most of the people in his organization. There are two people who hold his trust, but we know even less about them." Jack turned on the screen and the pictures of a man and a woman appeared.

"What do we know of them?" Agent Weiss asked.

"This is Sark." he said as he pointed to the picture. "This woman we know nothing about. This is the only picture we were able to get and as you can see it isn't very detailed.. All we know is that these two show up instead of the Man. Sloane will do everything in his power to either take over this organization or ally himself with them. Together, they would be almost invincible. We have to get to the Man first, we need to get as much information as possible on this group. I intercepted a call, the man has scheduled a meet. Both of these people might show up, or only one of them will. Either way you must do anything necessary to apprehend these two, before Sloane does."

"Where is the meet?" Vaughn asked.

"It'll be here in LA, they'll be meeting at the Hilton Hotel with Mark Fleming."

"Who's Mark Fleming?" Vaughn asked.

"It isn't important who he is, what's important is what he has access to. The Man recently took possession of a blueprint for a new weapon, Fleming wants to develop this weapon. The Man will exchange the blueprint for a software program that Fleming has developed. This program will give the Man unlimited resources, he'll be able to hack into any secure site. We cannot allow this exchange to happen."

"What do you suggest?" Devlon asked.

"I have it on good authority that neither Sark nor this woman have ever seen or spoken to Mark Fleming. I suggest that we take Fleming into our custody and send an agent in his place. We can make a corrupted copy of the software, make the exchange and then apprehend them before they get a chance to leave."

"Weiss, assemble a team, you will be in charge of apprehending Fleming. Vaughn, you'll go in as Fleming." Devlon said as he stood up and left. The rest of the agents scattered around and left, leaving only Vaughn and Jack in the room.

"How have you been Jack." Vaughn asked.

"Fine. I'm glad to see you decided to join the CIA Michael." Jack said.

"I grew up surrounded by CIA agents, it just seemed natural."

"I'm sure your father must be proud." Jack said.

"He is. You should talk to him, he'd like that." Vaughn said.

"Perhaps." Jack said as he took his things and left.

**In A Hotel Room**

Vaughn sat waiting patiently for the arrival of the two contacts. Fleming had simply said that he had been instructed to wait in the room until two associates of the Man showed up. He hadn't been given any names and it made him nervous, he feared that Fleming might have given false intel.

"_Boy scout, you copy?" _Vaughn heard Weiss over the tiny earpiece.

"Copy." Vaughn answered.

"_Boy scout, a man and a woman are approaching your room." _Weiss said.

"Thanks Weiss." Vaughn said. Seconds later there was a knock on the door. Vaughn stood up and opened the door. Standing there in front of him was a young man about his height standing next to a beautiful woman with red hair and a sexy red outfit.

"Mark Fleming I presume." she said in a British accent. When he first opened the door she was surprised at how familiar he seemed. His green eyes gave seemed so familiar to her, she was sure she had seen him before, but she couldn't remember.

"Yes, and you are?" Vaughn asked.

"Mind inviting us in for a drink?" Sark asked.

"Of course, come in." Vaughn said as he stepped to the side to allow them to come in. He closed the door and sat in the table facing them. Sark poured himself a drink and then poured one for Vaughn.

"Would you like me to order any roomservice?" Vaughn asked.

"Thank you, that won't be necessary." Sark answered.

"I'm sorry, I didn't catch your names." Vaughn said.

"That's because we didn't give them to you." the woman said.

"Now darling, don't get defensive so soon. I'm Sark." Sark said. "And this lovely lady prefers not to give her name."

"Then what should I call you in the meantime?" Vaughn asked.

"You talk to much." she said.

"And you don't talk enough." he said with a smile, as he took his drink. She looked at him more intently now. Images and memories started flooding her thoughts. Then it hit her, she had seen him before. Not as an adult but as a child.

"_My name is Michael, but everyone calls me Mike. Your name is Sydney right?" he asked. Sydney simply ignored him. "Do you like cartoons? I like cartoons. I like to play basketball too, but hockey is my favorite thing to play. Do you play hockey? Probably not, maybe one day I can show you how. Do you like to read? Do you even know how to read? Probably not. Are you in school? I'm in the third grade, I can read." he continued._

"_I know how to read. My mom taught me." she finally answered. "And you talk a lot." _

"_You don't talk enough." he replied. "Why don't you come eat breakfast with us?" _

"Enough talk, why don't we get down to business." Sark said interrupting her train of thought. "Did you bring the disk?"

"Yes." he said as he pulled out a small disk from his pocket. Sark took the disk and pulled out a laptop.

"I'm just going to check it now. Once that is done, you can have the blueprints." Sark said as he inserted the disk into the laptop.

"Funny thing Mark, you don't look like a Mark to me." she said.

"What do I look like then?" Vaughn asked.

"You look more like a Michael." she said.

"Really." Vaughn answered. Vaughn felt his heart start to race. Had he been made as CIA?

"Yes, in fact if I had to guess, I would probably say you look like a Michael Vaughn." she said. Vaughn's face suddenly turned serious. He didn't know what to do.

"_Boyscout, we're sending back-up. Hold on." _Weiss said over the comms.

"What the hell are you talking about darling?" Sark asked.

"I'm sorry Mr. Fleming, we don't have a deal." she said as she stood up. "Come on Sark."

"What's going on?" Sark said as he stood up.

"We're leaving." she said as she pulled out her gun and pointed it toward Vaughn.

"What about the exchange?"Sark asked.

"I'm guessing that the disk in a fake, just like Mr. Fleming." she said.

"Aren't you going to shoot him?" Sark asked.

"Not today. Let's go." she said as Sark took the computer with him and walked out the door with her.

"Base, they've just left. I was made, the exchange didn't happen." Vaughn said as he stood up and walked to where he had hidden his gun.

"_Boyscout, you are ordered to sit tight. Don't go after them. We have it covered."_ Weiss said

"I'm closer, I'm going after them." Vaughn said as he ran out the door and watched as the woman and Sark took the stairs. He ran as fast as he could and managed to catch a glimpse of them as they ran down the stairs. She looked up at him and smiled, as he ran down the stairs trying to catch up to them.

"Base, this is Boyscout, they're taking the stairs." Vaughn said.

"_Copy that Boyscout."_ Weiss answered.

Vaughn ran as fast as he could and managed to get close enough. Vaughn shot the wall and barely missed hitting Sark. Sark and the woman stood still.

"Base, I've got them, we're on the third floor." he said.

"_Copy that Boyscout, we'll be right there."_ Weiss said.

"Michael, for your own good stay out of this." she said as she raised her gun.

"Put your weapon down!" Vaughn yelled as he pointed his gun to her. She smiled at him and shot his gun, causing it to fly out of his hands. Sark and the woman continued to run as Vaughn searched for his weapon. By the time that he found his gun they were out of sight. The exit to the third floor opened and several agents entered.

"What happened?" Weiss asked as he looked around.

"I lost them. She shot at me and they ran." Vaughn answered.

"How the hell did she know you weren't Fleming?" Weiss asked.

"The more important question is how does she know me?" he said. "That woman knew me Weiss, she knew me."

"Did you recognize her?" Weiss asked.

"No." he said.

"Come on, let's go." Weiss said.

**Driving in the Freeway**

"You mind explaining to me what the hell that was?" Sark asked.

"Just an old childhood friend." she told him, losing her British accent.

"You should have shot him in the hotel room." Sark said.

"I didn't want to shoot him." she said defensively.

"You put us at risk Sydney." he said.

"We're fine aren't we?" she said as she turned to look out the window.

"This time." he said. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing." she sais as she put her head back and closed her eyes. Seeing Michael again had brought back many memories she thought she had put away for good. In her mind all she could think about was her father, and the life she might have had if he hadn't died, if her mother hadn't been a fugitive.

"Are you sure?"

"Just take me home." she said.


	5. Chapter Five

**CIA Office**

"What went wrong?" Devlon asked, on the verge of losing his patience.

"I don't know. Everything was going fine and then somehow she knew my name, and then they left. They disappeared." Vaughn said.

"How could she have known your name?" Devlon asked impatiently.

"I don't know."

"Agent Vaughn, if you are keeping things from the CIA, let me tell you..."

"I'm not." he said sternly, interrupting his director.

"Explain to me, how then, did she know your name?"

"Maybe someone tipped them. Maybe she saw me at a previous mission, I don't know. All I know is that I don't know that woman. I have never seen her before in my life." Vaughn said.

"I hope that's true. You're dismissed." Devlon said. Vaughn walked out of the office enraged at everything that had happened. Everyone assumed that he was keeping things from the CIA, all because some criminal knew his name. He had to admit that he couldn't explain how she knew him. One moment she looked at him like a stranger and then the next her face showed recognition. He had to admit that her expression had changed drastically from one moment to the next. He couldn't explain it, how could she have known his name, he had never seen her before.

"Mike, wait up!" Weiss said as he ran towards Vaughn. Vaughn continued to walk away, he was too angry to be civil with anyone. "Hey!" Weiss yelled once more as he caught up to him. "What's up?"

"I need to get out of here." Vaughn said as he continued to walk.

"Alright then, let's get out of here. Come on, I'll buy you a drink." Weiss said as he walked side by side his best friend.

**Bar in LA**

"Maybe you dated her in college and you don't remember." Weiss said as they entered the bar.

"I think I would remember if I dated a girl like that."

"Maybe she was ugly when you dated her." Weiss suggested. They took a seat at the bar and ordered their drinks.

"No matter how much I think about it, I still can't explain how she knew my name."

"You said that she changed in the middle of the conversation right?" Weiss said.

"Yeah."

"Well if she had recognized you at first, she probably wouldn't have gone in right?"

"Maybe." Vaughn said.

"So she had to have realized that you were you in the middle of the whole thing. So when she "changed" as you put it, that was probably her reaction to recognizing you."

"Where are you going with this."

"Dude, you probably do know her but you just don't remember. That would explain why she didn't recognize you right away. You probably said something that made her realize it was you. Maybe you flashed her with the big MV smile and she remembered that you two dated in high school or something."

"What the hell is an MV smile?"

"The Michael Vaughn flirting smile."

"I don't have a flirting smile."

"Yes you do."

"No I don't."

"Yeah you do, every time you see a hottie you flash her with this big, 'I'm a sweet loveable guy, why don't you date me' smile. Works like 85 of the time." he said as the bartender brought them their drinks. "Thanks man."

"Now you have statistical data for my flirting techniques."

"So you admit, you do have a flirting smile."

"I didn't admit anything."

"Yes you did."

"Alright already, I think we've had enough about the flirting." he said with a laugh as he took a drink from his beer.

"Man, she was hot." Weiss said.

"Who?"

"What do you mean who! The mysterious red head, with her tight little dress and her British accent. You gotta admit she was hot."

"I'm not admitting anything."

"Come on, you're telling me you didn't think she was hot. That you didn't flash her an MV smile, that you didn't wonder once, what it would be like to be with a girl like that?"

"Alright, so maybe she was a bit good looking." he said smiling.

"You liked her, don't lie and I think she liked you."

"Your delusional."

"Come on, she could have shot you at any time, she let you go. I'm betting it's because she liked you."

"Hot or not, or whether she liked me or not, it doesn't make a difference. Either way, she's a criminal. Even if I had liked her, she's one of the bad guys. So there, end of story."

"Alright, end of story. Man, did you see Devlon's face when he heard about the mission."

"No, but I did get the third degree."

"Ahhh, don't worry about it."

"He thought it was my fault, like I had told her who I was."

"Excuse me, the young woman from the table behind you asked me to give you this." the bartender said as he handed Vaughn a folded piece of paper. Both Weiss and Vaughn turned around but the table behind them was empty. "What young woman?" Vaughn said as he took the piece of paper.

"She asked me to give this to you once she left." he said as he walked away to attend the other customers.

Vaughn opened the piece of paper and read the short note.

_It was a pleasure seeing you again this morning. Perhaps next time we meet, it'll be under better circumstance. And your friend is right, you do have a flirting Michael Vaughn smile. I, too, think it's very effective. _

_Sincerely,_

_One of the bad guys._

"Hey look, she kissed the bottom of it." Weiss said as he read over Vaughn's shoulder.

"Where did she go." Vaughn asked the bartender as he was passing by.

"She went that way." he said as he pointed to the back exit.

"Come on." he told Weiss as they ran out the back door. The back door only led them to an empty alley. They ran toward the street and looked around but didn't see her.

"She's gone." Vaughn said as he walked toward Weiss.

"I told you she liked you."

"Will you be serious, this woman is a criminal, and she was sitting in the table behind us. What do you think Devlon is going to say when he finds out!" Vaugh said losing his temper.

"I realize that, but how were we supposed to know that she was sitting in the table behind us."

"We're CIA, this type of thing is unacceptable! Devlon is going to kill me!"

"Then don't tell him." Weiss suggested.

"I can't do that, as it is he already thinks I'm keeping things from the agency. If he were to find out I kept this from him he'll fire me." Vaughn said.

"Mike, listen to me. We're assuming that it was her, but it's not like we can prove it. We didn't see her, and the note says nothing about her being the same woman from today."

"What do you mean, she said 'It was a pleasure seeing you again this morning." and "sincerely one of the bad guys." Who else could it be?"

"It could have been someone messing around with you. Someone who overheard our conversation and decided to play a joke. Besides if you give this to Devlon, he's going to think you lied to him earlier."

"Why?"

"She said seeing you again, as in you saw her before this morning. If you want my advice, keep it to yourself. Come on let's go back in." Weiss said. Both men walked back into the bar and walked up to the bartender.

"Can you describe the woman who gave you the note?" Vaughn asked.

"Yeah, how can I forget. She was a blonde, had hazel eyes, she was about 5'8". She had these big kissable lips and these cute dimples, oh yeah and she was wearing this skin tight black dress. She was hot." the bartender said.

"Did she have a British accent?" Weiss asked.

"Nah, she was American."

"Thanks." Weiss said.

"What do you think?" Vaughn asked.

"I don't know, blonde hair?" Weiss said.

"She could have been using wigs, and the accent could have been fake. I think it was her, I think she was here tonight."

"Well I don't think you should tell Devlon, he'll take you off this assignment, he'll probably give you desk work, and I'm sure he's not going to think you're very trustworthy."

"Fine, I won't tell him." Vaughn said.

"Really?" Weiss asked in surprise.

"What!"

"I never thought you would do it."

"You're the one that suggested it." Vaughn said defensively.

"Yeah, and I would do it, but I never thought that you would." Weiss said laughing.

"Yeah, well you're a bad influence." Michael said.

"Come on man, let's go home before your hot stalker comes back." Weiss said. Vaughn simply laughed and they left the bar, not realizing that the woman that they were searching for minutes earlier was sitting nearby once again. In the five minutes that they had searched for her, she had gotten rid of the wig, taken the contacts off and changed her clothes. Now she was dressed in dark blue jeans and a black shirt, under a long black coat. She was wearing glasses, had less make-up on and her very long brown hair was worn down. She smiled and took a drink of her beer as she watched them leave. Working with her mother wasn't about the cause, it wasn't about Rambaldi for her. For Sydney it was all about the thrill, the adrenaline, the danger and excitement. Being so close to a CIA agent, taunting him and flirting with him, was a thrill that she couldn't pass up. She had come to the bar to think, to momentarily escape from her life. The fact that Michael had come to the same bar was simply a coincidence. She knew that she should have left, but she didn't want to. It was a game for her and sending him a note mad the game even more exhilarating. She had made her presence known, and still managed to be unnoticed. She finished the rest of her beer and then took her purse and left.

**Next day **

Sydney walked into the abandoned warehouse, from outside it looked like nothing much but inside it was quite different. As she walked inside her mother's organization she was met by Sark.

"Where were you yesterday night?" he asked.

"I went for a drink." she said.

"I was worried about you."

"You know I can take care of myself."

"Yes, I'm aware. I just wish you'd let me in." he said.

"I don't want to have this discussion right now. We'll talk about this later." she said as she walked away from him. She walked into her office and sat at her desk. She picked up the phone and dialed a familiar number.

"Hello." a woman answered.

"Hi mom."

"Sydney, it's so great to hear from you. How are things going?" Irina asked.

"We had a minor setback yesterday. Mr. Fleming was a no-show. Instead, it was the CIA."

"The CIA, are you sure?" Irina asked in worry.

"I'm positive, but don't worry everything is fine."

"Syd I want you to come back."

"Mom, I'm fine."

"Sydney, I don't want you involved with the CIA. The CIA is very dangerous to us, please come back."

"Mom, I can take care of myself."

"I don't doubt that, but if the CIA is involved, everything changes."

"How? How does everything change, we've always known that the time would come when this would come out in the open."

"Syd, I'm asking you to please come back with me. Sark can take care of things in LA. There are dangerous people in LA, the fact that the CIA knows, means that there are others who know about us."

"Who are you so scared of?" Sydney asked.

"Sydney, if I ask you to do something, you do it! This isn't open to discussion. You work for ME, that means you do what I ask, and I am telling you to come back now!" Irina said sternly.

"Fine, I'll go back as soon as I can. We still have a few more things to take care of, once that's done I'll go back."

"I expect you back soon."

"I have to go." Sydney said.

"Take care darling. I love you." Irina said.

"I love you too. Bye." Sydney said, after which she hung up. She sighed and closed her eyes, thinking about how complicated her life had suddenly become. Just then there was a knock on the door and Sydney sighed once more, wondering what else she was about to be bombarded with.

"Come in." she said. The door opened and Sark walked in. She smiled at him and watched him sit across from her.

"I'm sorry about earlier, I shouldn't have brought our personal problems into work." he said.

"There's nothing to apologize for, you were right, I keep you out too much. It's my way of protecting myself." she said.

"From me?" he asked.

"No, from everything. I've lost a great deal in my life, I guess sometimes keeping people out protects me from the pain of losing them. I once lost my mother, I lost my father, I lost friends and boyfriends, it hasn't been easy for me."

"I understand."he said as he stood up and walked to her. "But you don't have to worry about me. I won't leave you, unless you want me to." He leaned in and began kissing her.

"So are you going to tell me who Michael is?" he said in between kisses.

"He was kind to me once, when I was all alone." she told him. "I would appreciate it if you refrained from hurting him, if you can."

"Anything for you." he said continuing to kiss her.

"Alright, we have to get back to work. We'll continue this later." she said as she gently pushed him away.

"You promise?"

"I promise." she said.

"Alright then, we'll finish this later." he said as he left her office.


	6. Chapter Six

A/N: Thanks for reading everyone. Just to clarify, although there is a relationship between Sydney and Sark at the moment, this is by no means a Sarkney story. Sark is an important character but he is not a main focus in the story. And yes, this will end up S/V.

Chapter Six

_It had taken him ten years to finally find her, and today was the day when he would be reunited with his daughter. He had spent ten years of his life searching for any trace of Irina, hoping beyond hope that he would find his daughter. Guilt had followed him ever since the night that Irina took Sydney, he had blamed William, but in truth he had blamed himself. He had abandoned his daughter, left her vulnerable to his enemies, to Irina. His friendship with William was no longer the same, they spoke politely to each other but they were no longer the good friends that they once were. Now they hardly saw each other, it pained him at times, to realize how much he had lost because of his stubbornness. He had lost his wife, his daughter, his friends and came close to losing his job as well. _

_Two days ago he had received a call he had not been expecting. It was Director Devlon, one of the few friends he had left. He had called to tell him that Irina had gotten sloppy, she had left a paper trail and it had led the CIA straight to Sydney. "DNA tests prove that it is your daughter." Devlon had said. They had given a location and today he was finally going to be go to his daughter. He spotted the place they had told him about, and slowly he walked towards it. Finally he had arrived, he knelt down and touched the grass, it was new. The CIA had replaced it, after having dug up what lay beneath. _

"_Sydney." he said outloud as he extended his arm to retrace the name that had been inscribed on the gravestone. His worst fear had become a reality, he had found his daughter, not a healthy fifteen year old, as she should have been today, but as a corpse buried in a Russian cemetery. He closed his eyes and pictured her in his mind. He saw her dressed in her favorite clothes holding her teddy bear running around the kitchen. He smiled to himself, as he watched her singing and dancing. Finally he remembered the last time he held his daughter, the last time he had told her he loved her, the last time that she had told him she loved him. It was a bittersweet memory. He had abandoned her, when she needed him the most. It was his fault that she was dead, if he had been there Irina would have never taken her away. _

"_I love you sweetheart and I'm so sorry I wasn't there for you." he said as he began to cry. Jack wasn't a man to show emotion, but today his heart was broken beyond repair and the least his daughter deserved was to be mourned by her father, fully without hesitation. After a few minutes he stood up and wiped his tears away, once more his face was stern He looked at the grave once more_. _"I promise you, I will make her pay for this." _

He woke up to the sound of his alarm, and sat up before turning the alarm off. He realized then that he was sweating, and he knew without having to look at the calender what day it was. Today marked ten years since she had died, ever since the day he found her, on the day of her death he dreamt about her, from the day she was born to the day he found her grave. He looked at the picture next to his alarm and picked it up. It was one of the few pictures he had of Sydney and him, and this one he treasured most. It was on the day of her fifth birthday. Irina had to work that morning so Jack had taken Sydney to the zoo in the meantime. He remembered how happy she had been that morning. She had wanted to take pictures of every animal, and had almost finished the entire roll of film.

"_Let's go see the lions!" she yelled in excitement. _

"_Alright, come on." he said as he took her hand and led her in the right direction._

"_I love lions daddy." _

"_Why is that?"_

"_Because they're pretty."_

"_Well here they are." he said as he pointed to the lions._

"_Let's take a picture of them!" she said._

"_Okay, but this is the last picture we have." he said as he got ready to take the picture._

"_Wait!"_

"_What?" _

"_I don't want a picture of the lions. I want a picture of you and me."_

"_But you love the lions." he said_

"_But I love you more." she said matter-of-factly, Jack simply smiled and looked around for someone to take their picture. _

"_Excuse me." he told a man passing by._

"_Yes?"_

"_Would you mind taking a picture of my daughter and I."_

"_Sure." he said._

"_Thank you." he said as he walked toward Sydney. He picked her up and put her on his shoulders, they both smiled and the man took their picture. _

It was a moment that he would never forget, no matter how many years passed by. The picture was priceless to him not only because Sydney had loved it so much, but because it was a reminder of the love his daughter had for him. He put the picture back to its place and went about doing his normal routine. Although for him, the day had so much meaning, for everyone else, it was as if it had not happened. No one remembered that ten years ago today his daughter had died. It saddened him to see how forgotten she was, but he would never forget, at least he could give her that much.

**In A Hotel Room**

She woke up expecting to find Sark lying next to her, but as she opened her eyes she was surprised to find that she was alone in the comfortable large bed.

"Julian?" she called out as she looked around the room. She walked toward the bathroom but found it to be empty. It was unlike him to leave without saying goodbye, and his car keys were still on the night stand where he had left them the night before so he couldn't have gone too far.

She looked at her watch, it was only six thirty in the morning, she had woken up half an hour earlier than usual. She sat down wondering what she should do now. Should she wait for him? Should she eat breakfast, or get dressed and ready for the day? As she sat there contemplating what to do next she became aware that outside her room someone was having a conversation. She walked to the door and listened intently, it was then that she realized it was Sark on the phone.

"I assure you she has no idea. If she suspected something I would be the first to know. I'm telling you that there is no way she would find out. The only people that know the truth are you and I, and we both know that neither of us is going to tell her. I'll do my best to convince her to leave, but you know she's stubborn. I checked out Mr. Vaughn, he's not of any problem to us. It's unlikely that he'll become a problem to us. Yes, well I should be going now. I'll keep you updated. Goodbye."

Sydney immediately took off her robe and ran back to the bed. She pretended to be asleep. She heard Sark come into the room and then get back into the bed. He placed his arm around her, and she wanted nothing more than to rip it off and beat him with it. She now knew he was keeping things from her, and by the sound of it, important things. All she had to do now was figure out how to find out what exactly he was hiding from her.

**SD-6**

"The CIA has recently discovered the existence of a criminal organization that is currently operating here in Los Angeles. We don't know much about it, but we do know that they are extremely dangerous terrorist and they must be stopped. We have little information on them. All we know is that someone they call, 'The Man' heads this organization. We've received intel that this man, Mark Heath," he said as the picture of a man appeared in the computers of his agents, "is an important part of that organization. Your mission is to follow him, find out the location of that organization, and any of their important players."

"You don't want us to apprehend him?" Dixon asked.

"No. He's more valuable to us if he doesn't know he's being watched. He can lead us to the location of that organization, and to the key players. With that information we can take them down. If he went missing then the Man and his organization would have the upper hand."

"Do we have a location for him?"

"Yes, we have his home address. It's in his file. Just make sure to be careful, these are very dangerous people." Sloane said.

"We will." Dixon replied.

"You're excused." Sloane said as he left the conference room. He walked into his office and saw that Jack was sitting waiting for him.

"Jack, I'm glad to see you." Sloane said as he sat in his chair.

"You said it was urgent." Jack said getting to the point.

"Yes, well I just got word, that there are a few of the Man's agents that can be persuaded to help our cause."

"Really? Persuaded how?"

"Don't worry about that, you just leave that up to me."

"Who are these agents?"

"No one particularly important."

"I'd like to meet with them, if you don't mind."

"Of course." he said as he stood up. "Just follow me." Jack stood up and followed Sloane. They walked past several desks and then entered into a room that seemed fairly unimportant. Sloane walked to a keypad and pressed a few numbers. He stepped back and watched as a secret door opened. They walked down the stairs and continued along a dark hallway passing several doors along the way.

"In here." he said as he stopped in front of a door. They entered the dark room and watched as an Asian man dressed in a suit, wearing a pair of round glasses, was taking off a pair of latex gloves.

"Meet Seth Post and Fernando Sanchez." Sloane said triumphantly. The two men, who were tied to a chair appeared to have been beaten and tortured.

"I see your methods of persuasion haven't changed much over the years." Jack said dryly.

"Did they have any information?" Sloane asked the his employee.

"Yes, they gave us more names of other agents, as well as the name of someone they said is very close to the Man."

"We already know about Sark." Sloane said.

"No, not Sark. A woman." Jack looked up, apparently interested in finding out the name of an important player.

"What did they tell us about this woman." Sloane asked.

"No one really knows her true identity, just like the Man, but she goes by the alias Julia Thorne. It seems that Miss Thorne and Mr. Sark are very friendly. They claim that if you get Miss. Thorne, you can get both Sark and the Man." he said with a smile on his face. "The rest of the information they gave us is here." he said as he handed Sloane a folder.

"Thank you." he said as he took the folder. "Jack, I think we have all we need. Let's go."

Jack followed Sloane out of the room and back into the main office.

"It seems things are going well for us." Jack said as they reached Sloane's office.

"Yes. Once we take over the Man's organization we will be very close to achieving all of our goals. It's only a matter of time Jack. It's only a matter of time."

"Yes, well let's hope that everything goes as planned." he said as he stood up and began to walk away.

"Jack."

"Yes." he said as he turned around to face Sloane.

"How are you holding up?" Sloane asked.

"I'm sorry?"

"It's the anniversary of your daughter's death."

"Yes. I'm fine. Thank you for asking.".

"Why don't you take the rest of the day off." Sloane said.

"I will, thank you. I'll see you tomorrow morning." he said as he continued to walk away.

**CIA office**

Jack walked past all the agents, hardly taking the time to even look at them. He walked into Devlon's office unannounced and proceeded to ignore Agent Vaughn's presence.

"We have a problem Devlon." Jack said as he shut the door.

"What is it Jack?" Devlon asked ignoring the rude manner in which Jack had come into his office.

"Sloane has in his custody two agents that work for the Man. In addition to that, he's having another one their agents followed in order to find out the location of their LA office. He had substantial information, information that will be very helpful in taking over this new organization."

"What information?" Devlon asked.

"The woman with Sark. She's known as Julia Thorne. Apparently she is the closest person to the Man. If the information that Sloane has is correct, all he needs to do is capture her and he has the biggest bargaining tool."

"Why her?" Vaughn asked, finally making his presence known.

"She is the Man's second in command. Apparently the Man would do anything to protect this woman. If Sloane captures her, he'll have unlimited access to the Man's organization"

"Why would the Man allow someone so valuable to him to work for him, knowing that she would be a target?" Devlon asked.

"Perhaps they're lovers." Vaughn interrupted, sickened by the thought of it.

"No. According to Sloane's intel, she and Sark are... close. This means that the Man probably has a closer relationship to her than that. Perhaps, a younger sister, or a daughter."

"We can't allow that to happen. We have to get find Julia before Sloane does." Devlon said.

"I agree, the question is how?" Jack said.

"I'll put a team to find out anything they can about Julia Thorne." Devlon said. "Hopefully we can get a lead on her from that."

**Sark's Office**

Sydney opened drawers and looked through folders. Nothing out of the ordinary, information on contacts they had, things they wanted and the people they were keeping tabs on. Nothing here was new to her. She sat on his desk and turned on his computer and much to her surprise, she didn't need a password. She looked through several files but still found nothing even remotely suspicious. She saw a file, it was marked personal. She tried to open it but this time the computer asked for a password. She tried several passwords but none worked.

"Have we really come to this?" Sark asked as he closed the door behind him. She hadn't even heard him come in. "You sneaking off in the middle of the night to break into my office and look through my personal files." Sydney simply stayed silent, she didn't know what to say.

"What exactly were you hoping to find?"

"I'm not sure." she answered honestly.

"You're not sure." he repeated. "I hope you have some sort of explanation for this."

"I overheard you on the phone this morning. I came here hoping to find answers."

"You could have asked me."

"The only people that know the truth are you and I, and we both know that neither of us is going to tell her. Your words exactly."

"Sydney, sometimes people are forced to lie to protect the people they love. If I have kept things from you, it's to protect you from the truth."

"I don't need you to protect me. What I need is to have someone who will be honest with me, who won't give me reason to doubt them. What are you keeping from me? What truth do I have to be protected from? Tell me, I want to know!" she said losing her temper.

"I was talking to your mother. A few years ago she confessed to me that your father was CIA. He died coming back from a mission, they were ambushed after the plane landed. He was tortured and killed. Your mother thought you were too young to know that, and she didn't want you to think that your father had suffered before he died. She was afraid that being in LA, in such close proximity to CIA agents, that you would somehow find out."

"My father was a salesman." she said as her eyes began to fill with tears.

"No Sydney. Your father was CIA." he said. Tears began to ran down her eyes. He had been tortured and then killed, all she could think about was how much her father must have suffered. Sark walked toward her and put his arm on her shoulder. "Are you alright?"

"Don't touch me." she said as she pushed his hand away and stood up to face him. "How could you keep that from me?"

"Your mother asked me."

"And what else has she asked you to keep from me? Huh? What else don't I know?" she asked in anger tears still running down her eyes.

"You're being irrational. I was only trying to spare you from the pain that this has obviously caused you."

"You lied to me. You know how much my father means to me, how much I treasure his memory. You knew I always had questions about his death and you stayed quiet." she yelled at him.

"Sydney, please, be rational about this."

"Who killed him? Who!" she asked.

"I don't know and neither does your mother." he answered.

"Listen to me Julian. If I ever find out that you lied to me, about anything, or that you're lying to me right now. It's over. So if there is anything else, anything at all that you aren't telling me, tell me now, otherwise pray that I never find out." she said her tone of voice serious and angry.

"That's it. There is nothing more." he said. In the back of his head he wondered whether he was doing the right thing. He was keeping things from her, many things in fact, but how could he tell her. If he told her, she would probably shoot him for having kept it from her in the first place. He stood there wishing that Irina had never trusted him with the truth about Sydney's father.

"I hope you're telling me the truth." she said as she walked out of the office.


	7. Chapter Seven

A/N: Thanks for reading and I appreciate your comments on the story. I hope you all like this chapter. Let me know what you think.

Chapter Seven:

She walked furiously to her mother's apartment, knowing that her mother was already expecting her. Before she had the chance to knock on the door, it had already been opened. Irina stood by the door smiling, opening her arms ready to hug her daughter.

"Don't." Sydney backed away, she didn't want to be held, she wanted to be angry. She wanted to yell and scream and break things. It was her right, she had been lied to by the people that she had trusted the most.

"What's the matter?" Irina seemed surprised, although in reality Sark had already informed her of the situation. She didn't want to infuriate Sydney further by presuming to know what was going on and so she pretended not to know.

"Were you ever planning on telling me the truth?" Sydney walked past her mother and into the luxurious apartment.

"Sydney what are you talking about?"

"My father! He was CIA, a little fact that you failed to mention to me!"

"It was irrelevant." Irina, unlike Sydney, was capable of maintaining her cool, something that was beginning to annoy Sydney more and more as the conversation progressed.

"How is that not relevant? This is my father we're talking about!"

"Yes, and he is dead. That little known fact wouldn't have changed anything."

"It would have changed a lot of things for me. How do you think I feel, knowing that if my father were alive that I would be working against him. This isn't what he would have wanted for me. How am I supposed to feel knowing that I let him down, that nothing that I have done in my life would have made him proud!"

"That's exactly why I didn't want to tell you. I didn't want to complicate your life, making you wonder about foolish things like you are right now."

"Did he know about you? Was this all some sort of set-up, a plan of yours, of the KGB? Were you using him?" Sydney's voice had returned to normal now, not because she was calm but because of the questions that she was now asking her mother. Beyond the fact that he was CIA was the question of whether her mother had used her father. It was something that she hoped wasn't true.

"Yes. He knew about me, but it is far more complicated than you wish to acknowledge. It wasn't just a coincidence that I happened to be KGB and that he happened to be CIA. I was sent to the states to steal information from him. So yes, I suppose, I was using him. It doesn't mean I didn't love your father or that he didn't love me. He chose to stay with me even after he found out the truth."

"You lied to him, you used him, and you've done the same with me!"

"Sydney, things aren't always what they appear to be. The sooner you accept that, the sooner you will come to understand a lot of things. You can't have a tantrum every time you find out something you don't like. There are a lot of things you don't understand, and it is unfair for you to judge me for something that you know nothing about."

"And whose fault is that?"

"Sydney, I am not perfect. I am not a perfect mother and I wasn't a perfect wife. Have I kept things from you? Yes. Did I use your father? Yes. But neither of those truths change the fact that I love you and that I loved your father, and I will continue to love him until the day I die."

"How could you lie to me for so long. Everything you've ever told me I have believed without question and now I don't know whether any of it was ever true." Tears began to stream down her face. Irina walked toward her and held her in her arms, Sydney was hesitant at first but finally the love she had for her mother overcame her anger and they sat on the couch while Sydney cried in her mother's arms just like she had when Irina had first told her that her father was dead.

**CIA Office, Los Angeles**

For the past two days Vaughn and his team had searched for any information that would lead them to the location of Julia Thorne. They had found nothing, not a birth certificate, not a credit card statement, not even a late rental fee. They had no proof of her existence, let alone her whereabouts. Agent Vaughn had been almost a tyrant for this assignment. He had played it off as simply being disappointed that his team had been unsuccessful, and he had even told Eric that it was simply his frustration at allowing Sloane to have the upper hand. Eric hadn't bought it for one second, he had insisted that Michael had a "crush" on this woman. Michael had denied it of course, but now he was beginning to wonder what was really affecting him. Yes, he was frustrated that his team was unsuccessful and that Sloane had the upper hand but his frustration was more than just that. It was something else, something that he couldn't put his finger on. Maybe it was the fact that this mysterious woman knew him, maybe it was the fact that she had been so close to him and he had let her get away. He wasn't sure what it was but he didn't like it.

**Irina's New York Apartment**

They had spent hours catching up and talking about everything and anything. They had finally come to the decision that Sydney would not be returning to LA, instead she would work directly with Irina in New York. At least now Sydney would be able to do what she loved most, going on mission around the world.

"So all I have to do is break into his office and steal the manuscript?"

"Yes. It shouldn't be too difficult. The whole place has cameras, I can hack into their system and loop the cameras so that shouldn't be a problem. You just have to get up there unnoticed and break into the safe as quickly as possible. There is no room for mistakes Sydney, if you get caught they'll shoot you on sight. The Chinese government isn't nice to American thieves who break into a wealthy man's home."

"Don't worry mom, you know I'm a pro."

"Yes, and sometimes it really worries me. No one should have so much fun risking their lives like you do."

"It's all part of the thrill."

"Sark mentioned the other day that you knew the agent that was sent instead of Mr. Fleming."

"Yes."

"Who is this agent and how exactly do you know him?"

"It's William Vaughn's son, Michael. He and I were friends when I was a child, during the time I thought you were dead."

"Michael Vaughn, yes I do remember him. You haven't seen him in over twenty years, how did you recognize him."

Sydney smiled and close her eyes as she conjured the image of Michael's face in her mind. "His eyes. He has amazing eyes." Irina watched her daughter and began to laugh in amusement.

"Oh yes, his eyes." she mocked. "I take it from the look on your face that he is a handsome young man now."

Sydney looked down, embarrassed at her mother's words. "Yes, he is."

"So you like him then?"

"I liked him as a child, now I just happen to be attracted to him, nothing more."

"Sark felt a bit jealous you know. He told me that he could see that you had a special interest in him."

"Does Sark tell you every little thing about me? What happened to privacy?"

"Don't get mad Sydney, you know that Sark loves you."

"Not as much as he loves you."

"Sydney, please."

"It bothers me. Julian seems to trust you more than he trusts me. I know that he keeps things from me, perhaps they are job related, but I can't be sure. In any case there is this huge space between us."

"Do you love him?"

"I'm not sure. I care about him, but I don't think I love him."

**CIA office, Los Angeles**

Eric had a huge smile on his face as he walked towards the not so happy Michael who was sitting at his desk, continuing to look for any trace of the woman who had gotten him in so much trouble.

"You won't believe what I just found out."

"What?" Michael answered unamused.

"Well I could see that looking for Julia was getting us nowhere so I decided to look for something that Julia would look for."

Eric had gotten Michael's attention and now Michael was intently listening to everything that Eric was saying. "Did you find something?"

"I remember that we recently got custody of some guy who sold in the black market and I know that this guy usually deals with antiques and things of the sort. So I thought I'd take a shot and I asked him if he knew of anyone owning Rambaldi pieces, and as luck would have it, not only does he know of someone who had a Rambaldi piece, but he sold it himself. I have the guy's name and address and get this, he's hosting a party in tomorrow night."

"You think that the Man will send Julia to negotiate a deal?"

"I'm thinking that tomorrow night is the perfect time to negotiate a deal or steal the damn thing, depending on what they like to do best."

"Have you talked to Devlon about this?"

"Yup, and he's sending us to go check it out." he said as he began to do a silly victory dance.

Michael began to laugh and patted his best friend on the back. "You're the best."

"Here's the mission." he said as he handed Michael a file which contained the specifics of the mission. "We're basically going in as spectators. If Julia isn't there we're just gonna party but if we find Julia we have orders to apprehend her, and Devlon says that under no circumstances can we allow Julia to walk out of there with the Rambaldi manuscript."

"Sounds easy enough."

**Party, China**

Sydney walked into the enormous mansion feeling confident and beautiful. She was wearing a gorgeous dark blue dress that made her look stunning. The halter top dress was semi-backless and had a high slit on the right. Her long brown hair was curled and a section of her hair was pulled back, except for a few curls that framed her face. She had gotten in by giving the name Andrea Lazar and saying that she was there representing an American company that was thinking about investing a large amount of money in the business of the mansion's owner.

She walked around the room and talked with several of the guests. She was waiting for her mother to loop the surveillance cameras so that she could sneak into the upstairs office that held the safe. In the meantime she enjoyed the party, drinking champagne and talking to the various guests. Irina and Sydney knew that the guards would change their posts and leave the staircase unattended for a maximum of a minute so they had to do everything precisely at the right time. Irina would wait until the guards were just about to leave before looping the cameras, and Sydney would walk up to the office soon after.

"_Looping the cameras now ."_ Sydney heard Irina say over the comms a few minutes later.

Sydney put her hand over her right ear and spoke as inconspicuously as possible. "Going upstairs, I'll be radio silent until I get the manuscript."

Sydney looked around the room and began to walk towards the hallway that would lead her to the staircase. She quickly walked up the stairs, taking advantage of the fact that the guards were changing post and had momentarily left the staircase unattended.

Once she was in the room she quickly walked to where the large portrait of a Chinese man and his family was hanging. Carefully she removed the portrait which wasn't very heavy and put a small device that was hidden underneath her shoe on the keypad of the safe. The small electronic device began to decipher the code of the safe. The device worked quickly and in minutes she had opened the safe. Her mother was right, it was a clean simple job, no need to negotiate when it was so simple to take it. She found the small manuscript quickly and placed it safely in her purse, which she had brought for the manuscript. She placed the portrait carefully back to where it had been before and was ready to leave until she heard footsteps and watched as the door began to open slowly

&&&

Michael and Eric walked into the large room which held at least a hundred guests, all wearing fancy clothes and expensive jewelry.

"You think I could find a rich woman to marry me?"

Michael smiled and looked at his friend. "Not a chance."

"What are you talking about? Rich older women are always searching for young un-rich guys like myself, they want to be sugar mamas, and I don't mind."

"Be serious. If you see her, tell me. I'm gonna go over there and you take that side."

"Yeah, I bet finding her will be real easy, seeing as she changes hair, accent and style of clothing every five minutes."

"Just go look." Michael and Eric took opposite sides of the room hoping to find Julia, but Michael was aware that finding her might be more difficult than anticipated. Eric was right, she was obviously good at disguising herself. She could look like anyone now. She might be Irish with blonde hair or French with black hair. He looked closely at every woman that passed by him but he still couldn't find her.

Just when he was about to lose hope of finding her among all these people he noticed a woman in a dark blue dress. He couldn't see her face but he saw her heading towards a hallway that no one else had gone to. He followed her down the hallway and realized that the guards had just left, leaving the staircase unattended. 'It has to be her.' he thought as he watched her run quickly up the stairs. He was quite a distance from her but he ran up the stairs trying not to lose her from his sight. He watched her turn the corner but wasn't able to see where she went after that. Once he was upstairs he began to go into the various rooms that there were hoping that he might find her. He opened each door slowly because he didn't want anyone else to find him up there, he knew that if he was caught he would be in a lot more trouble then he would like to be. He opened about three doors without finding anyone there. When he came to the next door he heard a bit of noise, hardly any, but he knew that someone was there. He opened the door slowly and through the crack of the door he saw her standing there with fear in her eyes.

It was Julia, no doubt about it. Her hair was different...longer and brown instead of the short red he had seen her with before. She looked amazing and he could have sworn that at the sight of her his heart skipped a beat.

Once the door was fully opened her fearful eyes became annoyed instead. He walked in and closed the door behind him. "Julia Thorne."

"What are you doing here?"

"I'm here to take you into CIA custody."

She looked at him with an amused smile and had to hold back her laughter. "You're arresting me?"

"Not exactly. You're in danger and the CIA can't afford to let anything happen to you at this moment. I'm here for your safety."

"I don't need your protection."

She began to walk towards the door, or at least he thought that was what she was going to do. Instead, she walked right up to him and pushed him against the wall. His back hit the wall quite hard, he hadn't expected her to push him, so he wasn't very grounded when she did so. He had expected her to punch him or kick him after that but instead she pressed her body against his and began to kiss him passionately. She put her arms around his neck and wrapped her right leg around him. Her actions had caught him off guard, but instead of pushing her away, as he knew he should do, he kissed her back. He put his arms around her waist and kissed her back with the same intensity that she was kissing him with. For a moment he realized what he was doing and stopped kissing her. He looked at her expecting her to say something, to give him some sort of explanation for her actions. She stayed silent and looked him in the eye. She smiled and then kissed him again. This time Michael forgot all about what he should do and let himself be consumed in the moment, consumed by her.


	8. Chapter Eight

A/N: Sorry about taking so long to update. I've had midterms and finals are coming up in about a week and a half. I hope you like this chapter, I think it's a bit longer than usual. This is a transitional chapter because it's heading towards a different phase in Sydney's life.

Chapter 8

The door opened slowly, her heart began to beat faster and quickly she turned on her earpiece subtly in hopes that her mother would be able to help her. She held her breathe for a second until she realized who it was. As the door opened further she recognized the man who was opening it. It was Michael.

He walked in and closed the door behind him. "Julia Thorne."

She wondered how he found out her alias. One thing her mother had always insisted on was to keep her true identity secret from the world. Few people knew her as Sydney Bristow, she could count all of them on one hand. Those who worked with her mother knew her as Julia Thorne, and the rest of the world knew her as whatever alias she chose that day.

"What are you doing here?" she asked.

"I'm here to take you into CIA custody."

She smiled, she couldn't help it. He was seriously underestimating her, or overestimating himself if he thought he could arrest her on his own. "_You're_ arresting me?"

"Not exactly. You're in danger and the CIA can't afford to let anything happen to you at this moment. I'm here for your safety"

"I don't need your protection."

"_Sydney, listen to me. A guard spotted the man you are with. They're looking for him as we speak and two guards are heading towards you." _Irina said.

She ran through every scenario possible in the few seconds she had. She made up her mind, she couldn't bring attention to herself, she had to get out of this another way. She walked towards Michael quickly and pushed him up against the wall, and quickly kissed him. He didn't push her away, he just stood there, probably in shock from her unexpected actions. She wrapped her right leg around him and put her arms around his neck, she wanted to make it as real as possible. To her surprise he began to kiss her back. He was a great kisser, she had to give him that.

He stopped responding to her kiss for a second. He backed off of her kiss and simply looked at her. She looked into his eyes, those beautiful eyes, and smiled at him. She continued to kiss him and this time he kissed her back with the same intensity that she was kissing him with. He put his hands on her waist and caressed her back.

The door opened and they both turned to look at the men who came in. It was the two guards that her mother had warned her about. Sydney began to giggle as she placed her leg back on the ground.

"Oh my god. I am so embarrassed." she said continuing to giggle.

"You are not supposed to be here." the guard said sternly as he looked at her from head to toe.

"I'm sorry. Champagne really gets to me, we'll leave right away sir." She grabbed Michael's tie and pulled him so he would follow her. The guard put his hand out and they both stopped.

"Are we in some kind of trouble?" she asked sweetly.

"Make sure this doesn't happen again."

She smiled at him and placed her right hand over her chest. "I promise."

Sydney continued to lead the way down the stairs, still holding his tie.

"Let go." he said as he grabbed her hand. She smiled at him once more and let go of his tie.

"Now what do we do?" she asked

"_Sydney, follow him for now, when you're at a safe distance I'll get you."_ Irina said over the comms.

"Now you come with me." He took her arm and lead her away from the crowd and outside of the mansion. Michael put his hand over his ear and spoke out loud to no one, or so it seemed."I got her. Meet me at the Rendezvous point."

"_Copy that boy scout. I'll be right over." _Weiss answered back.

They stopped a short distance from the mansion. They weren't out of the estate yet but they were far enough not to draw any attention to themselves.

"You seem angry Michael." she teased.

"Why would I be angry?"

"Perhaps because you thought that the kiss was real. Perhaps I should have warned you that the guards were coming. You said earlier I was in danger, danger from what?"

"That's classified, I'm not authorized to tell you."

"A woman like me is always in danger Michael. I'm sure that whatever it is you're trying to protect me from, I can protect myself."

"You don't know who's after you, otherwise you wouldn't be so sure about your ability to protect yourself."

"Why don't you enlighten me."

"Like I said I'm not authorized to say. Once you've been debriefed by the CIA, they'll tell you what is going on."

"_Alright Sydney, I'm here. I'll take care of this agent and then we can leave. Do you have the Rambaldi artifact?" _Irina asked.

"Yes, well that's the problem you see. I won't be debriefed by the CIA, so unless you tell me I won't know."

"What do you mean you won't... Agh!" Michael touched the back of his neck and managed to pull out a tranquilizer dart that had hit him, but not in time to prevent it from taking effect. He looked at Julia and watched as darkness consumed everything in his sight.

As soon as he hit the ground Sydney looked around for any sight of her mother. She saw that her mother was standing by a tree nearby and quickly ran towards her.

As soon as Sydney was close enough Irina threw her arms around her and held her tightly. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine mom." Irina released her tight grip on her daughter and they began walking towards her car. As soon as they got in Sydney turned around to take one last look at Michael. By then Eric had already come to his side. She watched as Eric looked around and at not finding her he went back to the aid of his friend. Irina drove off quickly and as soon as they were at a safe distance from the mansion turned to look at her daughter.

"What is it Sydney?"

"Just wondering, what do you think that was about?"

"What?"

"He said they didn't want to arrest me, that the CIA wanted to protect me. Why would they want to do that?"

"I'm not sure but we should look into it. Perhaps for once the CIA may know more than we do. Sark asked about you."

"I don't know if I want to talk to him."

"You can't be mad forever."

"No, but that doesn't mean I have to talk to him."

**SD-6**

Sark opened his eyes to find himself in a strange windowless dark room. His neck was sore and when he tried to massage his neck he found that his hands were tied to the chair. He tried to remember the last thing that happened to him. He remembered the fight with Sydney. How angry she looked that night. He wished so hard that things could be alright between them. The way they used to be. When they first met things seemed to be perfect. Everything _was _perfect. Until his job had interfered. He had to keep things from her. Her mother had protected her too much. Sydney was not accustomed to the cold-bloodedness of this job. To her it was all about the excitement of missions, not so much the cause that the rest of them believed and followed blindly.

But how did he get here? He remembered walking to the hotel after their fight. He woke up the next morning and called Irina, tried to talk to Sydney but she wouldn't answer. He had then gone to meet a man about a possible lead on a Rambaldi artifact. That's it! He remember the meeting. It was then that a strange smell had caught his attention, but before he could react everything had gone black and now he was here. Alone in the dark wondering what would happen.

The light turned on. A man walked in.

The man sat in front of Sark. "Mr. Sark. A pleasure to meet you."

"Sloane."

"I wasn't aware you knew who I was."

"My employer has made it a priority for us to learn the faces of our enemies. I know all about you."

"What _do _you know about me?" Sloane smiled.

"I know you run an operation for the alliance called SD-6. I know that the men who work for you believe that they work for the CIA and as my employer put it, and I quote, you're 'a heartless son of a bitch who intoxicates the air you breathe'."

"Well here's a little something your employer might have left out. I like torture. I like to watch men break and tell me everything that I want to know." His smile was now gone, all that was left was one cold look that sent chills to Sark's spine.

"No, my employer was kind enough to let us know that little fact. We're all aware of what we're in here. Not to worry, my loyalties are flexible. Even the Man would understand."

"I'm glad you feel that way."

"Yes, well, I'm not too fond of pain."

"You're employer, how can I find him?"

"Quite difficult. You can't find the Man, the Man finds you. The Man has a secure line, few of us know that number, but the ones who do call him and tell him that they need to meet. The Man puts the conditions to that meeting and they must be followed to the letter otherwise the meet is over."

"Who is Julia Thorne?" Sark's blood ran cold. How did he know about Julia?

"Another agent."

"Yes I know she's another agent. What I want to know is what's so special about her?"

"There's nothing special about her. She works for the Man, that's it."

"I'm not a fool Sark. I know that there is something you aren't telling me. Just do yourself a favor and tell me what I need to know."

"Julia Thorne is no more important than I am. She has no more knowledge than I do. You don't need her."

Sloane stood up. He walked up to Sark and looked him in the face. Sloane punched him once. After only a moment he punched him once more.

"Tell me what I need to know or you will regret it."

"I told you, she is of no importance."

"Is that so, and here I thought that she was your lover."

"It's true. Julia and I are close, but that has nothing to do with her involvement with the Man."

"No, but it's the reason why you aren't telling me everything. Mr. Sark, I have tortured better men and gotten what I've wanted. I will find out what I need to know, it's up to you how much you suffer in the process."

Sark closed his eyes. He loved Sydney. He couldn't allow himself to break. He had to be strong otherwise she would suffer. "I'm telling you the truth."

"Fine. Have it your way." Sloane left the room, moments later coming back accompanied by an older looking man carrying a small case. The older man sat in front of him and opened the case revealing several knives and sharp instruments that Sark could only imagine what they would be used for.

"You may begin." Sloane left the room, leaving Sark alone with the man who would in seconds become his torturer. He walked down the long hallway that was underneath the SD-6 office. Before he left he smiled at the sound of Sark's screams. Soon he would have all that he wanted.

**Hours Later, SD-6**

"Jack, we've made great progress." Sloane said over the phone.

"Do we know the location of Sark?"

"I have Sark. He's told us everything we need to know. Julia Thorne is the Man's daughter. We have a possible location for her. A condo in New York. If she's there we'll have her in a matter of hours."

"What's the address?"

"Don't worry about it, I have everything covered."

"Either way, I'll be back in the office in a short while."

"There's no need for that Jack. You've been working too much. When we have Julia I'll let you know."

"Good then."

"Goodbye Jack."

"Goodbye Arvin."

**CIA Office, Los Angeles**

Michael sat at his desk, still searching for any more possible leads to finding Julia. He had been working almost non-stop since his return from China.

"Mike, you need a break." Michael turned around to see his best friend who had just come into the office.

"What I need is to find her."

"You need to stop punishing yourself. There was a second person. It wasn't your fault. We had practically no intel, you can't blame yourself."

"Jack doesn't seem to think so."

"What do you mean?"

"He just came into the office ten minutes ago. When he was walking past me he gave me this look. He looked pretty mad."

"Jack always looks mad."

"It was worse today. He's been in Devlon's office since he came in."

"Maybe it's good news."

"Right." Michael smiled at the mere thought of good news and Jack combined into one sentence. He looked up and realized that both Devlon and Jack were heading their way.

"Sloane has a location on Julia Thorne. It's likely that they'll have her in their custody soon enough." Devlon said as soon as he was close enough to Michael and Eric to be heard.

"If Sloane has a location on her, can't we get it too?" Eric asked.

"No, it's too risky. First of all Sloane won't give me the address, I've already tried. Getting it some other way would be too risky especially considering the fact that he is the only one who has it." Jack said, his face serious and annoyed.

"How did he get her location?" Vaughn asked.

"Sark contacted a man who's been under the careful watch of Sloane. When Sark went to meet him a gas was released into the room which caused Sark to blackout. When he awoke, he was tortured for information. He told Sloane that Julia Thorne was in fact very valuable, she is the Man's daughter. He gave Sloane a location as well." Jack informed them.

"Isn't there anything we can do?" Vaughn asked in frustration.

"We had our chance to get her, it's gone now. All we can do is wait. For now we have no other options. If Sloane captures Julia, we'll have to come up with a way of extracting her, or preventing the alliance to gain control of SD-6." Vaughn couldn't help but frown at Jack's words, which were so obviously accusing him for Julia's escape.

**Sydney's condo, New York**

The sun woke her up, she looked at her alarm clock and hesitated to get up. It was late, almost noon, she was usually up by seven. The mission last night had drained all of her energy. She recalled the events of the night before and wondered what Michael was doing at this moment. He was probably at work by now... probably having to explain what went wrong the night before. Was he angry at her? She hoped not. She liked him, she couldn't pretend otherwise. She put her fingers to her lips and remembered the kiss they had shared. She sighed and closed her eyes, a smile forming on her face. The smile quickly faded as she heard the door of her apartment break open. She sat up quickly and watched as several men entered her bedroom. They were all heavily armed, she knew she didn't stand a chance. She was unarmed, she was alone. She didn't stand much of a chance, not with this many men. She held up her hands, and stood up. She was wearing a knee length silk nightgown. Completely inappropriate for fighting these guys. As one of the men came up to her and tried to handcuff her, she grabbed his arm and twisted it back, turning him around and using him as a shield. She used his gun and shot at two of the other men. Shots were fired all over the place, as she tried to kick the man closest to her, she felt a bullet grace her shoulder. That didn't stop her however. She threw the man she had been using as a shield and used his back to jump up and kick the man across from her. She hadn't realized that through the chaos of the fight another man, one she would later know to be a man named Dixon, was able to stay clear of the shots she fired. He was behind her and in one quick move he shot her. She turned around and looked at him before passing out and dropping to the floor. By then only three agents were left unharmed.

"Is she going to be okay?" one of the men asked.

"I used a tranquilizer gun, she'll be fine. Get someone over here to take these agents to the hospital, I'll get her over to Sloane."

**SD-6**

Sydney had been hanging from a chain for the past thirty minutes. Her hands had been handcuffed to the chain that had her hanging a few inches above the ground. She had been alone since she had woken up. She had no idea where she was, or who had her. This must have been what Michael had tried to warn her about. The room was cold and she felt as if she might freeze anytime soon. She wished she was wearing something warmer, something other than the silk nightgown she was still wearing. The door opened and an older man came walking in, carrying a small case he set down on the table that was nearby, a second man accompanied him, he was carrying a video camera.

"Hello Julia. You and I are going to spend some time together."

"What do you want?"

"Don't worry about that. Just make sure to look at the camera. Someone very dear to you will be watching this soon."

Sydney closed her eyes and tried to block out the pain that would soon be inflicted upon her. She knew what this was. Someone had found out that she was the daughter of The Man. She was going to be the bait. She kept her eyes closed as the sprinkler above her head soaked her in cold water. The water kept running down her body, she was shaking uncontrollably now. She felt a shock of pain pass through her entire body and she couldn't help but scream in pain. Her body was now shaking more violently, almost as if she were convulsing. The sharp pain finally stopped, but the aftershock still remained. Her body kept shacking, and she felt pain all over. She tried to take slow breathes but she couldn't. She didn't know how long it was before they shocked her again, it seemed to happen so quickly. This process was repeated several times until the thought she could take no more. They uncuffed her and sat her down in the chair. They strapped her arms and legs. The next thing she knew they were pulling out her back teeth. She screamed for a long time until she finally passed out from the pain.

**New York, Irina's home**

Irina replayed the security tapes of the outside of her daughter's condo for the tenth time in the past hour. She sat quietly in her desk, watching as two men dragged her unconscious daughter out of the building and into an unmarked van. She had hoped that she might find a clue as to who had taken her but she had found nothing. Her cell phone rang breaking the trance-like state she had been in since she had found out that Sydney was missing. She looked for her cell phone and realized that it was not her usual cell phone that had rang, instead it was her emergency cell phone. It was an untraceable phone with a voice modifier. It was a phone number she had given her operatives in case they were found and tortured for information. Only five of her operatives knew that number, one of them was Sydney.

"Yes?"she asked, fearful of what she was about to hear.

"I presume I'm speaking to the Man." a familiar voice said.

"You are correct, and who am I speaking to?"

"Arvin Sloane." A feeling of disgust filled her. He had her daughter, she knew it.

"What do you want?"

"I have sent a little gift to your daughters condo. It should have arrived by now. When you get it, call me and then we can talk." The line went dead. Her heart was pounding fast. She picked up her other phone and called one of her operatives.

"Hello." the man answered.

"I need you to go to Julia's apartment. Tell me what you find."

"I'll be over in a few minutes."

"Don't contact me, I'll contact you."

Irina waited for what seemed like forever. She called her operative once again.

"What did you find?"

"It's a tape."

"Go to Julia's office. You can transmit the feed to my computer there." She hung up the phone and waited for her computer to accept the feed.

The tape began to play. It was Sydney, she was handcuffed and being electrocuted. Irina began to tremble with anger and pain as she watched as her daughter was tortured continuously. She forwarded the tape to the end and watched as her daughter screamed in pain and then finally passed out. Irina's eyes were watery now. She held back her tears and picked up the phone which Sloane had called and called him back.

"Hello." Sloane answered calmly.

"What do you want?" she asked.

"I want you to give yourself up to me. I want full control of your operation."

"Fine. We'll meet in a secure place where we will each be accompanied by twenty agents, no more no less. You will bring my daughter and hand her over to one of my men. Once I know that my daughter is safe I will go with you and give you full control of my operation."

"Where do you suggest we meet?"

"Tonight at midnight, at the Drake Stadium."

"I'll see you then."

Irina hung up the phone and closed her eyes. She was filled with dread, and a million questions. Would Sloane double cross her? Would he try to kill her? What would happen to Sydney?


	9. Chapter Nine

A/N: Here's another update. I hope you enjoy this chapter, let me know what you think.

Chapter Nine

It was dark outside, a bit chilly for a Los Angeles night. In about five minutes she was about to turn herself over to Arvin Sloane. One of her men gave the sign that Sloane had arrived. Irina walked over to the entrance of the field and watched as Sloane made his way to the center of the field with two agents walking behind him. She had instructed him to wait for her with her daughter in the center of the field five minutes before midnight where she would then meet him and the exchange would take place. At first she could not see Sydney and then she realized that the two agents were holding Sydney. She was bleeding all over, she looked like she was barely holding on. It seemed as if they were dragging her rather than helping her walk. She was wearing a silk nightgown, it had once been a beautiful beige color, but now it was full of dirt and blood.

"Irina, it's midnight." Jake Reynolds said from behind her. Jake had been a follower of Rambaldi most of his life and had devoted his life to Irina and her operation in hopes of one day finding the promised eternal life. He was the man who would take Sydney to safety while she would be walking into the arms of a madman.

"Let's go." she said. Jake walked in front of her. Irina was aware that as soon as Sloane saw her he would immediately recognize her as Irina Derevko, once Laura Bristow the wife of his best friend. She had to do this, she had to get her daughter back.

&&&

Sloane looked at his watch once more. It was now midnight and soon he would have the power and resources he needed to complete Rambaldi's endgame. He looked at the entrance that was facing him and watched as an older man walked straight towards him. 'So this is the Man.' he thought to himself. As the man came closer Sloane realized that there was someone behind him. He couldn't see who it was, but he assumed that it would be the person who would take Julia.

The man walked right up to him and then stepped to the side revealing finally the person behind him. It was a woman. A familiar woman. Sloane squinted his eyes, was he really seeing who he thought he was seeing?

"Arvin." she said cooly. She looked very beautiful. Her long brown hair, her face, the way she stood, it was her.

"Irina?" he questioned.

"Yes Arvin. It's me, I am the Man."

"We hadn't heard from you in so long I thought you might have been dead."

"You should have known better."

"You're right. I wish Jack were here to see this."

"This is Jake, he'll be taking my daughter."

"Of course." Sloane stepped aside and the two agents dragged Sydney towards Jake, but before that Irina intercepted them and hugged her daughter one last time.

"Mom." Sydney whispered as she tried to hold on to her mother. Throughout most of the night Sydney had been almost asleep. Everything seemed like a dream to her.

"Sydney," Irina whispered, "if this doesn't work, trust the CIA."

"What?" Sydney was able to ask before Jake took her. "Mom? Mom, no!" she yelled as she watched her mother walk away with Sloane. Jake tried walking quickly. She looked back and watched her mother wave her hand quickly. In a matter of seconds several of her operatives jumped out of nowhere and began shooting Sloane's men. The agents nearest Sloane attacked Irina before she was able to run away. Sloane signaled to his men and they opened fired. Jake was shot before they made it out of the stadium. Sydney looked back and watched as her mother was dragged away. She had been so worried about her mother that she hadn't realized that two agents were running towards her until they were only a few feet away. Sydney's heart began pounding quickly. She couldn't be captured again. If she was taken she would never be able to help her mother. She quickly began running as fast as she could. She ran and ran, hardly knowing where she was going. She felt a sharp pain in her shoulder. She didn't take much notice of it and continued to run. She heard more shots and when she looked back she realized that the two men running after her were dead. Shots continued to be fired, but she was too far away to realize who it was. She didn't want to stay and find out. She continued running. The streets didn't look very familiar to her, but she ran just the same. Finally she recognized one of the streets. She finally had a sense of direction. She thought about going to the warehouse, but then she remembered what her mother said, 'trust the CIA.' She knew where their LA office was at, it was a lot closer than the warehouse. She made her decision quickly and ran towards the direction of the CIA office.

**CIA Office**

"Maybe you should go home." Eric said once more.

"I can't." Michael told him again.

"Mike, it's already midnight. How long are you going to wait?"

"Eric, there's no point in me going home. I won't be able to sleep, besides someone should wait here in case Jack calls."

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean it has to be you."

"Why don't you go home? I promise if I don't hear anything in the next hour I'll go home." he said.

"Fine. I'm leaving. I'm too tired to wait with you." Eric stood up and took his things and left the office.

Michael closed his eyes and waited. He didn't really know what he was waiting for. Jack had left almost two hours ago. Sloane had told Jack earlier that they had Julia and that the man had agreed to make the exchange. Sloane had asked Jack to stay at SD-6 until his return. Jack had promised to contact the CIA as soon as he had further information. Michael felt almost devastated. This could have all ended had he been able to hold on to Julia in the first place. Now he was just waiting. Waiting to hear how bad things were gonna get, hoping beyond hope that something would go his way.

His phone rang and he quickly answered. He had assumed it would be Jack and was surprised when instead the receptionist answered back.

"Agent Vaughn, we have a walk-in. She asked for you specifically."

"Who is it?"

"She says her name is Julia Thorne."

"I'll be right there." he said as he put the phone down and ran to the elevator. When he got to the lobby he was surprised to see the state she was in. She was covered in blood, sweat and dirt. She was wearing a silk nightgown and had obviously been walking without shoes for sometime. Her mouth was bloody, her body full of cuts and burns but there was a large concentration of blood near her shoulder. He realized that she had been shot.

"Julia, you've been shot." he said. She looked at her shoulder and realized he was right. She had been shot, she didn't even remember being shot.

"Michael."she called out in a soft voice. Just looking at him filled her with a great sense of relief. He made her feel safe, and for that she was grateful. She wanted to run to him and hug him, but she had no strength. She felt her knees weaken and watched as everything went black. She called out his name once again, but she couldn't stop herself from falling.

Michael ran to her side quickly and managed to catch her right before she hit the ground. He sat down and gently laid her on the floor next to him. He continued to hold her as he ordered the receptionist to call an ambulance. It didn't take long for the ambulance to come over, but it seemed like a lifetime to Michael. She looked so fragile he was afraid to move her. The ambulance took her to the CIA-run hospital. Michael went with her in the ambulance. He didn't know exactly why he felt so attached to her, but he couldn't bare the thought of her going to the hospital by herself. He convinced himself that he was going with her to make sure that no one tried to take her again, but deep down inside he knew it was because he was scared. He was scared that she wouldn't make it, that she wouldn't wake up. Somehow he hoped that if she knew she wasn't alone it would help her pull through.

When the ambulance finally arrived at the hospital they quickly rushed her into the emergency room. Michael wasn't allowed to go in, something which annoyed him quite a bit. He tried to calm down and realized that he could take this time to call Devlon and Jack. They would both be very happy to hear that Sloane hadn't gotten away with everything. He used the payphone to dial Devlon's number.

"Hello." Devlon answered sleepily.

"Hello sir, it's agent Vaughn. I'm calling to let you know that the CIA had a walk in tonight."

"Who?"

"It's Julia Thorne."

"Have you taken her statement yet?" he asked much more awake than before.

"No, she collapsed moments after she came in. I'm at the hospital right now."

"What did the doctor's say?"

"They haven't said anything but I know she was shot. We just got here."

"Alright. Keep me posted, we need to find out what happened as soon as possible."

"I'll do that."

"Have you talked to Jack?"

"No, I was going to call him next."

"Alright then. Goodnight agent Vaughn."

"Goodnight." Michael put the phone down and dialed Jack's cell number. The phone rang a few moments before Michael heard the very angry voice of Jack.

"Hello."

"Jack, it's agent Vaughn."

"What can I do for you agent Vaughn?"

"I'm calling to let you know that Juila Thorne came to the CIA a half hour ago. She collapsed a few moments after arriving, I'm in the hospital now."

"That must mean that the exchange took place."

"Did Sloane tell you about it?"

"No, he was gone by the time I got to SD-6.".

"What does this mean?"

"Either Sloane suspects that I'm a double agent, or he's planning something so big he doesn't even trust me with it."

"I hope neither situation is the case here. As soon as I'm able to get a statement from Julia I'll let you know. I have to go Jack, the doctor just came out."

"Alright."

Michael hung up the payphone and walked towards the doctor.

"Doctor, how is she?"

"She's going to be fine. The bullet didn't cause any damage, she'll be a bit sore but thankfully it was only a flesh wound. She was dehydrated and very exhausted but other than that, she's going to be okay." Michael sighed and then smiled. He felt so relieved that she was going to be okay.

"Is she awake?" he asked.

"No, she's resting right now. She should be awake in the morning though."

"When will she be released?"

"I'll check on her in the morning. If everything is okay than she can leave tomorrow morning."

"Can I see her?"

"Sure, she's in room 47."

"Thank you doctor." The doctor simply smiled and then walked away. Michael walked down the hall and into her room. She was sleeping so soundly, it was hard to imagine that this woman had been the cause of so many sleepless nights and days full of worry. The only thing about her that gave her the look of someone dangerous was the handcuffs she had on. Each of her hands was handcuffed to the bed. Although she was a walk-in they had to take precautions. He brought in a chair that had been outside the room and pulled it up right next to the bed. He sat down and waited for her to wake up. It didn't take long before he fell asleep, uncomfortably, in the chair.

Hours later Michael woke up with a sore neck and back pain. He looked at Julia, who was still sleeping peacefully. He looked at his watch and realized that it was almost seven am. The doctor would be back shortly and soon enough Julia would be taken out of the hospital and taken into CIA custody.

"Agent Vaughn, good morning." the doctor said cheerfully as he walked into the room.

"Good morning doctor."

"Did you sleep well?"

"Not really, but she did."

"Yes, I'd imagine so. Let's see here, her vitals are normal, she doesn't have a fever or any infections. She seems to be doing fine. Julia? Julia can you hear me?" he said as he lightly nudged her. She opened her eyes slowly and at the sight of the doctor she tried to sit up but the handcuffs prevented her from doing it. She laid back down and looked at Michael and then the doctor.

"Where am I?"

"Julia it's alright. You're in the hospital, you're safe." Michael reassured her.

"Julia how are you feeling?" the doctor asked.

"I'm feeling fine."

"Any fatigue, discomfort, or pain?"

"No, I'm fine."

"Well in that case we'll release you by the end of the hour."

"Thank you doctor." Michael answered. The doctor smiled and left the room, Julia looked at Michael and waited for him to say something.

"Are you okay?"

"No. I was tortured, I've lost the only family I had left, and I'm sure that in less than an hour I'm going to be taken into some cell where I will be drained of any information I have."

"Why did you come to the CIA? I'm sure that you could have gone for help somewhere else, what made you decide to turn yourself in to the CIA?"

"Someone told me I could trust the CIA."

"Who?"

"And so the draining begins."

"I'm sorry. I know you've been through a lot. I'll leave you so you can get some rest."

"Thank you. I didn't mean to be rude to you. I'm just very frustrated right now."

"I understand." he said as he left the room.

**CIA Holding Cell**

The glass wall made it a little easier to bare. At least there were no bars. She had sat in the metal "bed" since she had arrived. She hadn't seen Michael since he left the hospital room in the morning. After he left someone brought her some clothes, not anything nice like she was used to, instead it was gray cotton pants and a matching gray button-up shirt. She didn't like the clothes but was thankful that she had something other than a hospital gown or a silk nightgown to wear. Before being brought to the CIA cell, she had been interrogated by a psychological profiler as well as an armed agent. She had told them nothing after they had refused to follow her terms.

"_You want something from me, I want something from you." she finally said after refusing for the third time to write a statement detailing her work with The Man and her capture and escape from Sloane._

"_What do you want?"_

"_I want the director to sign a paper stating that upon the capture of Sloane and the destruction of SD-6 and the alliance I, as well as the Man, if found, will be released."_

"_There's no way that the director will sign that."_

"_Then you get nothing from me."_

"_Are you listening to yourself, you're asking for the release of a terrorist, a person who has been running an underground organization dealing with weapons trade, drugs and intelligence that has put the lives of everyone in jeopardy. You aren't helping yourself by refusing to cooperate."_

"_I'm not trying to help myself. I'm trying to save the only family I have left. You can put me away into some cell now, because unless I know that my family will be safe you're not getting any information from me."_

They had done just that. They had taken her to the cell, where she had been left alone ever since. She assumed that it was some strategy, keep her in solitary until she broke and gave them what they wanted. They were wrong to think they could break her. Her mother had taught her well and she could endure a lot. She stood up and began pacing back and forth. She looked around the cell. There was no way she could escape without help. She was obviously being watched, she had already spotted three cameras both in and outside of her cell. She could see that even if she was able to get past the reinforced glass wall, there were at least four more cell walls to get through. She couldn't see any manual way of opening it, so she assumed they must operate through some command system somewhere in the CIA.

"I'm screwed." she said outloud. She sat down on the ground and stared straight into the camera that was inside the cell. She crossed her legs and stared, wondering if anyone was staring back at her.

&&&

Michael stared at the television screen wondering what she was thinking. It was almost as if they were staring into each other's eyes. It seemed to him that Julia was staring straight at him. She had been sitting on the floor starring into the camera for the last ten minutes.

"Weird huh?" Eric said from behind Michael.

"What?"

"It looks like if she was starring right at you. I almost feel like if she knew I was here."

"Oh, yeah. She's been like that for the last ten minutes."

"I heard she gave the profiler and interrogater a pretty hard time."

"I don't know, I wasn't there."

"Yeah, Peters told me. He said that Julia refused to speak for like thirty minutes. She wouldn't write any statements and when she finally spoke she told them that she wouldn't help them unless they promised to release The Man and her after capturing Sloane."

"How did she even know we were after Sloane and not the Man?"

"I don't know."

"Do you know what they're going to do with her?"

"I don't know Mike. Devlon has been screaming in his office for the past two hours. Jack hasn't shown up, we don't know what's going on in SD-6 or what happened with the trade last night. We're completely in the dark."

"That's great."

"Agent Vaughn!" Devlon called out from his office.

"Good luck man." Eric said as Michael walked towards Devlon's office. Michael hesitantly entered the Director's office.

"Agent Vaughn, that woman is withholding information! Jack hasn't been able to contact the CIA since last night. We have no idea what happened with the Man, all we know is that woman came in here last night instead of going with her people. So I imagine that at some point she had intended to help us. I want you to talk to her. I want you to get her to tell us everything she knows."

"I'll do my best."

"Well your best better be good enough otherwise it's both our asses."

"What do you mean?"

"My superiors have been on my ass for the last few days, about you to be precise. Whatever relationship that you have with that woman has jeopardized both our jobs."

"Sir, I already told you I don't know that woman. I don't know how she knows me."

"I believe you agent Vaughn, the problem is my superiors don't. You have until the end of the day to get her talking."

Michael walked out of the office feeling like he's just been punched in the stomach.

"Mike!" Eric called out as he ran towards Michael.

"Hey."

"What happened?"

"Devlon says I have to get her to talk or we're probably going to get fired."

"You and me?" Eric asked in shock.

"No, Devlon and I."

"Why?"

"Because this whole Julia thing is a mess. She got away on my watch, she knows who I am and I can't explain it."

"What are you going to do?"

"My job."

&&&

She heard the bar walls open one by one, but she remained still. She had been sitting still for the past thirty minutes now and she found that it was somehow soothing. Meditation had always been a favorite of her mothers. It must have something to do with the many times she had found herself imprisoned in her life. Sydney wondered if her mother was meditating now. Was she hurt? Was she being tortured? She only hoped that she would be able to help her soon.

"Julia." Michael said. Sydney opened her eyes and at the sight of Michael she almost smiled.

"Agent Vaughn, how nice of you to come visit me." she said mockingly.

"Julia I need your help."

"I already told your people what I want."

"Julia we can't do that. Your father is a terrorist, at most we can promise life in prison." Sydney felt a little pang upon hearing Michael's last sentence. Her father, a terrorist, what an insane idea. Her father was the most wonderful man that she had ever known, he was a good man and it hurt her to hear such awful words. She couldn't blame him though, he didn't know the truth. He didn't know that her father had been a CIA agent and close friend to his father, that her mother was the criminal but even so she loved her mother.

"Please don't ever refer to the Man as my father." she said. She knew that he wouldn't understand but she couldn't bare the sound of her father being called anything but a hero and a good man.

"Alright."

"I do want to help you Michael, but I need to know that you will do what you can to help me too."

"I can't promise you that The Man will be released."

"Then I can't help you."

"Julia, if you don't help me a lot of people will suffer."

"No Michael. If _you _don't help me a lot of people will suffer."

"I'm sorry you feel that way."

"Believe me, I want Sloane captured as much as you do but I can't help you unless you help me."

"How do you know we're looking for Sloane."

"I overheard one of your agents before I was interrogated."

&&&

Jack walked into the Director's office without taking notice of anyone else in the office.

"Jack where the hell have you been?" Devlon asked as soon as the door closed.

"I've been at SD-6. Sloane didn't show up last night or this morning. He didn't contact anyone after the trade. This morning we were contacted by one of the agents, he gave us their location. It was a massacre. There were almost forty dead, no survivors. The man who contacted us died before we got there. There was no sign of Sloane. We should assume that Sloane has taken control of the Man's organization."

"Have you tried contacting him?"

"Yes, he hasn't answered. Have you been able to get any information from Julia?"

"No, agent Vaughn is with her now. I hope he was able to get through to her."

"If he wasn't, I may be of some help."

"Jack, the CIA doesn't allow torture."

"Right, but I can still give it a try."

"Go ahead. I hope you get through to her."

Jack left the office and looked around for agent Vaughn. He spotted him coming out of the holding cell looking very disappointed. Vaughn noticed him right away and walked to him.

"Jack, what's going on?"

"Sloane has disappeared. Were you able to get anything from her?"

"She's not talking. She wants Devlon to secure her release as well as the Man's once Sloane is captured."

"I'm going to talk to her, hopefully I'll get through to her."

"Jack, don't be too hard on her, she's been through a lot."

"It's that mentality agent Vaughn that got you nowhere with that woman. Perhaps you should be more interested in national security than in a criminal."

"I'm not more interested in a criminal Jack but I do realize that there are other ways of getting what you want. Intimidation and torture don't always work, what are you going to do then, be nice?"

Jack ignored his last comment and walked towards the holding cell.

When he finally got to her cell he was a bit disconcerted by how much she reminded him of Irina. She had long brown hair, much like Irina's hair and her face had a striking resemblance to that of his wife's. Perhaps this woman was a relative, a niece or cousin perhaps. He cleared his throat and watched as the woman opened her eyes.

&&&

She continued to sit on the floor, still meditating. The sound of a man clearing his throat brought her back from her meditative state. She opened her eyes, feeling quite disinterested. She imagined it would be another agent trying to persuade her to tell the CIA what they needed to know. But this agent was different. It didn't take longer than a millisecond for her to realize that this man was different. Her heart felt like it would explode, beating so quickly. She could feel beads of sweat forming on her face. It was as if the temperature in the room had suddenly risen quite quickly. Her hands were trembling, not so much that a person would notice if they weren't looking straight at her hands. She felt a swirl of emotions run through her body. She was scared, she was excited, but most of all she was in shock. How could it be? He was dead. But then again she had never seen his body, never been to his grave. All she knew was what her mother had told her. But why would she lie? To keep her from looking for him perhaps. She had lied before, why should she believe that her mother had told her the truth about his death. She stood up slowly and walked towards the glass wall. She was standing in front of him, face to face. There was no denying it now. It was him. It was her father. Jack Bristow.

He seemed shocked as well, surely he didn't realize that she was his daughter, but likely it was her reaction to him that had shocked him. She hadn't even realized that she was crying until now that the tears were coming faster and harder. He just stood there, quietly. His face was unreadable, but his eyes, his eyes told her that he was confused.

"Are you alright?" he finally asked.

"Yes." she said.

"I'm here because I need to know what happened last night." he asked hesitantly. She continued to look at him. She couldn't take her eyes off of him, if she did he might disappear from her life again. She tried to touch his face but all she could do was touch the glass.

"I'll come back when you're feeling better." he said as he turned his back and began to walk away.

"NO!" she yelled out. She fell to the ground and cried. "Don't leave me! Please stay!"

He had stopped walking at the sound of her cries. He walked back to where he had been. "I'm still here." He watched as she stood up and again stared at him. "What is it?"

"They told me you were dead. They said you were dead, that you were killed on your way home." she began trying to explain everything to him. His expression turned more serious now.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"You said you would come back for me, you said we would see each other soon. But you never came back!" she yelled as she cried even more. "You said you would never leave me! But you left! You left me and then I never saw you again!"

"I don't understand." he said. He felt a lump in his throat, he wanted to cry too. He was so confused.

"Look at me! Look at me!" she yelled. "Don't you recognize me? It's me, it's Sydney! Look at me!"

His eyes opened wide. No, it couldn't be. He had found her grave, there were DNA tests to prove it was her.

"Sydney is dead! I found her grave, DNA tests confirmed it was her." he said.

"Nooooo! I'm Sydney!"

"You're lying." he said. He began to walk away once more. He couldn't handle this. This woman who looked so much like his wife, who claimed to be his dead daughter. It was too much for him.

"Daddy! Please, it's Sydney! You have to believe me! Remember the lions daddy, remember the picture! You have to believe me!" she cried out. She cried and cried and punched and kicked the glass wall. But he didn't come back. Finally she laid down on the cold metal bed and cried herself to sleep.

**Hours later, CIA office**

The phone rang and Jack immediately picked it up.

"Hello."

"Jack, it's Dr. Matthews, I have the results. I'm sending them to you via email right now."

"Thank you Dr. Matthews." Jack turned to his computer and opened the email that Dr. Matthews had sent. The results confirmed what she had said. Julia Thorne was in fact Sydney Bristow. Jack stood up quickly and walked towards Devlon's office.

He knocked on the door, he hardly ever knocked but seeing as he was about to ask a huge favor he felt that a sign of respect might help him out.

"Come in." Devlon said from inside. Jack entered the office and sat in the chair in front of Devlon's desk.

"What is it Jack?"

"Earlier, I told you that I wasn't able to get any information out of Julia Thorne."

"Yes I remember."

"I lied."

"What?"

"Julia Thorne told me that her real name isn't Julia, that it's in fact Sydney. Sydney Bristow."

"That can't be, Sydney Bristow is dead, DNA test confirmed that."

"That's what I told her. Still, the seed of doubt was planted. She looks just like Irina, she knew things that only my daughter and I shared. She's the same age as my daughter as well, and I asked myself what she could possibly gain by telling me something like that. If indeed I believed her she should have surely guessed that I would have found some way to verify it, so what could she gain from lying to me about it."

"Well?"

"I called the hospital earlier. Dr. Matthews told me he had indeed taken a blood sample and I asked him to conduct a paternity test. I asked him to do it as soon as possible. I just got off the phone with him, he sent me the results. Julia Thorne is indeed my daughter Sydney."

"Jack, I don't know what to say."

"I came here to ask you for a favor."

"What is it?"

"I have spent ten years of my life searching for my daughter, and after believing her to be dead I've spent my days mourning her. The past twenty years have been quite dark to say the least. I have often times wondered what my daughter would be like, how things would be different had I stayed and taken care of her. I have blamed myself for losing her everyday of my life. The only reason why I didn't give up those first ten years was because I had the hope that I would find her and after that the only reason I had to get up in the morning was the hope that someday I would be able to avenge her death. Knowing that my daughter is alive has given me hope once again. I would like for you to allow me to enter the cell. I haven't held my daughter in twenty years. I don't want to talk to her behind a glass wall. I know it's against protocol, but you have to understand that this is my daughter we're talking about."

"I understand Jack. I'll allow it. I'll give you one hour with her. You'll be supervised by an agent and you will release any weapon or sharp object before you see her."

"Thank you."

&&&

After having been searched Jack was escorted by agent Vaughn and agent Weiss to the holding cell. Michael opened the door to Sydney's cell and closed it immediately after Jack entered. Both Michael and Eric took a seat in front of the cell, to keep a watchful eye on Jack and Sydney. Neither Michael nor Eric were aware of the true situation, to them, Julia Thorne was simply Julia Thorne and not Sydney Bristow. That being the reason why they had found it strange that Jack would be allowed to enter the cell to talk with her. Eric simply assumed that Jack would probably do something shady, like beat her up or inject her with truth serum or perhaps just stand there until she broke from intimidation, while Michael believed that Jack had some psychological strategy to get her to tell them the truth.

Sydney was still asleep, her eyes were puffy from all the crying earlier. Jack kneeled down next to her and pulled her hair behind her ear. "Sydney. Sydney, wake up." Sydney opened her eyes and was surprised to see her father. She sat up and Jack sat down next to her. They were facing each other, silent for a second as they both took in the situation.

"Hi sweetheart."

"Daddy!" she yelled out as she wrapped her arms around him. They held each other for what seemed like an eternity, when in reality it had only been about a minute. Both Eric and Michael looked at each other in surprise.

"I've missed you so much." Jack said as he let go of his daughter. He looked at her and smiled, something that shocked Michael and Eric even more. "You're so beautiful."

"Daddy, I'm so sorry about everything. I know I've let you down." she said as her eyes began to get teary.

"Sweetheart, you could never disappoint me. I'm the one who disappointed you. Ten years ago we found a grave with your name on it. We tested the DNA and it confirmed that it was you. I believed you were dead, it's the only reason why I didn't continue looking for you."

"I thought you were dead too. Mom came the night you were supposed to come for me. She told me you were dead, she said she had come back for me because you were dead. She lied to me!" Sydney put her head on her father's shoulders and cried.

"Sweetheart it's alright."

"Dad, they took her. Last night, she traded herself for me and he took her. You need to help me get her back dad. I know you must hate her but I can't leave her with that man."

"If we have any hope of finding your mother you need to tell me everything that you know."

"After the mission in China I went back to my apartment. When I woke up in the morning my apartment was full of armed men. I tried to escape but I couldn't. The next thing I knew I was in this room and I was being tortured. They never even asked me anything. After a while they left me there. Then two men came and they dragged me out of there. I realized I was in LA soon after. I kept falling in and out of consciousness but I remember hearing them talk about a trade. We stopped at a stadium and they took me with Sloane. At the center of the field we waited until mom came. She hugged me and told me that if this didn't work that I had to trust the CIA. As I was being taken out of there by one of her men she gave a sign to attack, everyone was shooting at each other. The man I was with was killed, mom tried to escape but they grabbed her and took her with Sloane. I ran here and the rest you already know."

"Sloane wants to take over your mother's organization. He needs all of her resources to be free from the alliance. Do you have any idea where Sloane would go?"

"Mom has a lot of dirt on the alliance, it's her way of making sure that they don't cause much trouble to her. She keeps everything in a safety deposit box in France. If Sloane wants to get leverage on the alliance he would most like go there, assuming that mom has told him about it, or that somehow he found out on his own."

"I'll get a team there. Don't worry sweetheart, your mother will be fine, she's a strong woman."

"Dad, what's going to happen to me, to her?"

"Don't worry about it, I'll take care of everything. I'll make sure that you're safe. I love you sweetheart."

"I love you too. Will I see you soon?"

"Of course, I'll come as often as I can." Jack kissed his daughter's forehead and hugged her once more. He walked to the door and waited for Eric to open the door. Before leaving he turned to his daughter and smiled. "I'll see you soon." She smiled back at him and watched as the three of them left.


End file.
